Recto to DOTC: P6.6-B subsidy? Ensure better railway service

MANILA, Philippines - Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Friday told officials of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to ensure better services for the Metro Rail Transit before Congress approves the P6.6-billion subsidy it is seeking for railway operations.

Recto said the requested taxpayer support for the 13-station 17-kilometer line is lodged in two items in the proposed P52.9 billion budget of the DOTC for 2015.

First, it is under the proposed P1.92 billion for “operation and maintenance” of the MRT. The second one is a recommended P4.66 billion as “subsidy for MRT 3.”

“We will ask if the P6.6-billion in subsidy will be enough to prevent its trains from jumping off the tracks,” Recto said. “We’d also like to know how much would it cost to cut the queuing time for a ticket so that time spent in lines would be shorter than the ride itself.”

Recto also revealed that there is a special provision in the budget of the DOTC which allows the agency to use "farebox revenue" and "non-rail collections" in settling MRT’s operating requirements and prior years’ obligations.

As an exchange, Recto said the DOTC is promising to reduce transfer time from 10 minutes to five minutes and decrease its load factor by eight percent.

The senator was quoting from the proposed 2015 national budget that Malacanang has sent to Congress.

For the whole rail sector, the DOTC is targeting an average speed of 48 kilometers per hour, a 90% on-time schedule and 4.48 million passenger kilometers travelled every day for 2015.

“As to service disruptions, it is keeping the number of what it calls ‘passenger unloading incidents’ to under 300 for the whole of 2015,” Recto said.

“We would like to know if by giving the P6.6 billion, the DOTC can redeem on its promises,” Recto said.

Beginning 2013, the Aquino administration has attached “countable performance indicators and final outcomes” to every allocation it is asking in the national budget.

For the current year, Congress, through the national budget, has authorized P4.09 billion as subsidy to the MRT on top of its P1.81 billion allocation for its operation and maintenance.