MANILA – The petition of the Light Rail Manila Corporation (LRMC) to increase the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1) fare will be studied and decided by the Department of Transportation (DOTr), with its possible implementation to begin by April.
In a Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon interview over PTV on Thursday, DOTr Secretary Jaime Bautista said the fare hike petition will go through public consultation and will be studied by both the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) and the DOTr’s Rail Regulatory Unit (RRU).
“Kaninang umaga po ay nagkaroon ng unang hearing ang RRU para dinggin nga iyong petition, kasi po kailangang mayroon consultation iyan eh, bago natin payagan na mag-increase and sa kasalukuyan po ay continuous iyong consultation (This morning, the RRU held a hearing for the petition because there needs to be a consultation before we allow an increase and for now, the consultation continues),” Bautista said.
If approved, he said, the fare hike will likely be implemented by April at the earliest.
“Kung sakali mang magkakaroon ng increase, ang pinakamaaga nito ay siguro start ng second quarter, mga April (If there will be a fare increase, the earliest implementation will probably be by the second quarter, around April),” he added.
Bautista said the concession agreement signed by the government and LRMC in 2016 allows for a fare increase at the LRT-1 every two years.
However, he said a fare increase for the LRT-1 was only approved in 2024 despite repeated petitions by the LRMC in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024.
“Dapat naman siguro ay i-respect ng gobyerno at dapat payagan din natin sila magkaroon ng increases dahil tumataas din naman ang kanilang cost of operations (Perhaps the government should allow for a fare increase since their cost of operations are increasing),” he said.
Part of these increased costs is the LRT-1 Cavite Extension project, which has increased its capacity with an additional 80,000 passengers and five more stations since its inauguration in November.
“Dati it takes siguro almost an hour because of traffic from Baclaran to Sucat. Ngayon kapag sumakay sila sa train, mga 15 minutes (In the past, it would take almost an hour to travel from Baclaran to Sucat because of traffic. Today, it’s a 15-minute train ride),” he said.
A study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) found that vehicular traffic in the National Capital Region (NCR) costs the economy PHP3.5 billion per day.
“With the operation or the extension of LRT 1, medyo mababawasan po iyong economic cost ng traffic sa atin (the economic cost of traffic will slightly lessen),” he said.
On Wednesday, the LRMC, operator and maintenance provider of LRT-1, announced its filing of a petition for a fare increase.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan chair Renato Reyes opposed the proposed fare hike “in unequivocal terms” and said the petition had an average fare increase of PHP7.48 per passenger. (PNA)