Transport cost inflation

Urban workers are now spending more and more of their daily budget to cover transportation, and the physical punishment of getting a ride adds to their daily nightmare.

Inflation rate for transportation was 12.5 percent last month and contributed 14.8 percent to the total inflation rate. Our transport sector is almost totally dependent on imported petroleum, so this will always be a problem.

The big contributor for the transport inflation rate is diesel, which was up 54.4 percent, already a decline from the 74.2 percent in September. Gasoline was up 15 percent, a decline from 27.7 percent the month before.

The horrible traffic jams have returned to pre-pandemic levels or worse. That’s because past administrations have neglected the need for a good mass transport system in favor of our free-for-all jeepney/bus/tricycle system.

The rail projects came in late and are still works in progress. Outside of Metro Manila, there is hardly any project other than the on-again-off-again BRT project in Cebu City.

But some of the rail systems Art Tugade initiated are still using diesel. This will not protect us from the geopolitics of oil, nor will this help deal with climate change.

We used to have an electric streetcar system during the American regime. The system was inaugurated in 1905 under Meralco, and had around 63 km of light rail track, more than we have now.

That streetcar system connected Binondo, Escolta, San Nicolas, Tondo, Caloocan, Malabon, Quiapo, Sampaloc, Santa Mesa, San Miguel, and other areas within Metro Manila.

But the streetcar system that once dominated Manila was destroyed during the Battle of Manila between Japanese and American forces.

Post-WW 2 Filipinos in Manila and elsewhere converted military jeepneys, which the Americans used during the war and left here. It was called auto calesa.

The first time I heard a public official talk about a mass transit system was in the early ‘70s. I was covering Manila City Hall and then mayor Antonio Villegas wanted to put up a monorail system.

Villegas gave me a copy of a project study that proposed a monorail that would run around City Hall and the old downtown area. But somehow, the Villegas monorail proposal never got off the ground.

The strong jeepney operators/drivers lobby may have made Villegas hesitate to push the project. It took Imelda Marcos many years later to push LRT 1, our first modern rail-based mass transit system.

The first time I saw a monorail system used as mass transport was in Kuala Lumpur in the mid-80s. The 8.6 km long KL Monorail system runs across 11 stations.

During the Ramos era, a group of big businessmen proposed MRT 3 as a private sector financed and managed project. The 25-year Build-Lease-Transfer contract or BLT Agreement will end in 2025.

But the flawed terms allowed the private investors to cream revenues from advertising and other collateral businesses. It also allowed the government to set the fares at less than break-even.

It became a financial failure and was badly maintained. The government was forced to operate it at an annual cost of P9 billion. Now the government says it cannot afford this cost and wants to privatize it again. That will be a legal mess. MRT 3 serves over half a million commuters daily.

LRT 2 from Divisoria to Antipolo came in next as a totally government-owned and operated project. It took 10 years to extend the line four kilometers to Masinag in Antipolo.

They are talking of extending it now westward by three kilometers from the current C.M. Recto Avenue station to Pier 4 in the North Harbor, and further eastward to the GOGEO area of Antipolo.

LRT 7 was proposed by San Miguel Corporation. It is a 22.8 km-long elevated rapid transit line running from North Avenue, Quezon City to San Jose del Monte, Bulacan and will include 14 stations.

The new line will initially serve approximately 350,000 passengers a day, which will increase to 800,000 passengers a day upon completion of the upgrades.

Construction on the new line began in April 2016 and was half-way through as of October 2019. It is expected to be completed by 2023.

Then there is the subway, possibly the most expensive capital investment of the government. The Metro Manila Subway will cost P 488.47 billion, financed through a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It will be able to carry up to 519,000 passengers a day.

Metro Manila is currently served by LRT 1, LRT 2 and MRT 3, while the MRT 7 line will be connected to LRT 1 and MRT 3 through a common station. All will run on electricity.

And that’s the thing. We can be less dependent on diesel or imported petroleum if our mass transit system uses electricity.

And it doesn’t have to be just the trains. The Aboitiz Group has proven the use of electric mini buses for commuter transport to be both economical and environment friendly.

The fastest project that can be realized is the EDSA BRT system. In many cities abroad, trams are composed of three connected buses, powered by an overhead electricity source and running on rubber tires.

Even our make-shift EDSA BRT, composed of regular buses, has already carried over 400,000 passengers a day, with a daily average of 350,000 passengers. If upgraded to full BRT under a privatization plan, it can serve a million passengers a day, that’s twice more passengers served than the infinitely more expensive subway.

But our electricity grid must also be less dependent on imported coal. The price of coal is indexed to the price of imported oil.

The technologies for producing electricity from solar, wind, and waves are already available and can help reduce dependence of our transport sector to the price and supply volatilities of petroleum.

In the meantime, one good way of helping urban workers to save transport costs is to allow those who can work at home to do so. That is almost like giving them a pay raise.

Hopefully, our government gets its act together. The private sector is ready and waiting, but cannot move without government leadership in the use of alternative energy. Hopefully again, that happens soon.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco