MRT-3, LRT-2 incur losses

MANILA, Philippines — Revenue losses of the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT-3) and Light Rail Transit Line 2 (LRT-2) after more than two months of closure due to the community quarantine have reached over P500 million, and these are expected to widen as operations resume way below their original capacities.

Operations of the MRT-3 and LRT-2 were suspended from March 17 to May 31.

Both rail lines missed potential revenues of about P525.31 million for the total of 72 days that they were not in service, with four days of the Holy Week where operations are normally suspended excluded.

Based on computations, MRT-3’s average daily revenue from December 2019 to February 2020 was estimated at P5 million.

The rail line’s revenue stood at P153.17 million in December, P156.25 million in January, and P145.22 million in February.

Meanwhile, average daily revenue of the LRT-2 since October last year when full line operations were shortened from Cubao to Recto was at P2.3 million.

Prior to the incident in October, full line operations from Santolan to Recto were yielding an average of P4.2 million in daily revenue.

Despite resuming operations on June 1, revenues of both rail lines are expected to continue to suffer with limited operations.

From its pre-quarantine capacity of 1,182 persons per train set, MRT-3’s capacity is reduced to 394 per train set due to the implementation of one-meter physical distancing inside trains.