Door trouble ends MRT’s 28-day glitch-free streak
Incident causes offloading of around 1,000 passengers, the first since April 23
A malfunctioning door on Tuesday ended the 28-day glitch-free streak of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3, its longest in almost seven years after constantly being plagued by breakdowns and passenger unloading incidents for the past months.
At 9:13 a.m., Metro Manila’s busiest light rail system recorded its first unloading incident since April 23 as some 1,000 passengers were forced to alight from a southbound train at the Araneta Center-Cubao station in Quezon City.
MRT 3 media relations officer Aly Narvaez said that the train experienced door failure which was likely caused by passengers leaning on or forcing open its doors.
All passengers were accommodated on the next train which arrived six minutes later, Narvaez added.
Unloading cases hit 45
Aside from ending the MRT 3’s 28-day malfunction-free streak, the incident also brought the total number of unloading incidents this year to around 45, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) said.
The MRT 3 has not been without marked improvements, however. In April, it managed to bring from 8 to 15 the average number of trains running daily.
Ridership also went up, hit- ting an average of 350,000 passengers. Still, the figure was a big decrease from the train system’s daily ridership average of over 450,000 in 2017.
On May 10, the MRT 3 even managed to field 18 operational trains—the first since November last year.
Up for rehabilitation
Narvaez said the constant breakdowns and off-loading incidents were inevitable especially since the MRT 3 had yet to undergo extensive rehabilitation.
Earlier this year, the DOTr announced that it had tapped anew Japan-based Sumitomo Corp. to maintain and restore the trains to their original condition.
A full appraisal by the Japan International Cooperation Agency said that the rehabilitation could be completed within 31 months or mid-2021.