Door failure among top causes of MRT glitches

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Transportation on Wednesday urged the riding public to avoid leaning on train doors or force them open as door defects are among the leading causes of Metro Rail Transport-3 glitches.

Undersecretary for Railways Timothy Batan said there is an effect on the reliability of trains when there is constant pressure on the doors.

Door failure is the second leading cause for incidents where passengers are asked to get off the train.

Door defect accounted for 71 incidents of passenger unloading when Busan Universal Rail Inc. was still the service provider of the MRT until October last year.

It was the cause of 17 incidents of passenger unloading in a span of two months since the government took over the maintenance of the rail system.

“We understand the difficulty of waiting for the arrival of train and that people are in hurry but we might encounter more glitches if we force to open the train doors,” Batan said in Filipino.

Failure in automatic train protection was the top cause of passenger unloading with a total of 145 incidents.

Technical glitches hound the MRT-3, which ferries half a million commuters daily, almost everyday.

Batan, moreover, said that there will be no fare hike despite the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law this year.

“We are committed to no fare hike until commuters experience improvements in the system,” he said.