‘EDSA Bus Carousel removal up to DOTr’

MANILA, Philippines — It is within the purview of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to decide on whether or not to remove the EDSA Bus Carousel, acting Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Romando Artes said on Thursday.

The government has spent funds to build infrastructure for the new bus system – installed along EDSA’s innermost lane and using some of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3’s emergency exits as bus stops – and bicycle lane, Artes said in a statement on Thursday.

“It is the DOTr that must decide whether or not the EDSA Bus Carousel must be removed,” he said.

The MMDA recently took over dispatching buses along the EDSA Bus Carousel, which Artes said enables an average deployment of 600 buses a day from Monumento to the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange and back.

The EDSA Bus Carousel halved the time of bus passengers along EDSA, he maintained.

Artes issued the statement after the Mega Manila Consortium, composed of operators of city buses, proposed reclaiming the two outermost lanes of EDSA, including the bicycle lane, for buses and reinstating 14 bus stops along the highway.

The consortium said bus operators lost money since under the EDSA Bus Carousel scheme, the average deployment of buses was reduced to 550 units per day from 3,000.

Artes, however, said that “bringing back passenger buses along EDSA under the old system would cause traffic congestion” since the lanes were narrowed to accommodate the bicycle lane.