MRT-3 worsening P3.5 billion daily traffic

The U-Sec for Railways vows to fix things by end-March. But why hasn’t he ordered replacement parts?

MRT-3’s trains are diminishing. Last week only seven trains ran, less than a third of the original fleet. As half-a-million people vied for rides on rush hours, long slow queues spilled out from the 13 stations onto side streets.  More buses have had to be fielded on E. delos Santos Avenue, Mega Manila’s main artery that MRT-3 traverses. When EDSA clogs up, so does the entire megalopolis from North to South Expressways. That traffic costs the national capital P3.5 billion in fuel, pollution, and opportunity losses per day. The World Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency separately reiterate that.

Transport U-Sec for Railways Timothy John Batan promises to fix things by end-Mar. Supposedly the replacement parts he ordered from abroad last Nov. will be arriving in the next two weeks. Installation will be completed by the Holy Week break.

Batan can’t say how many trains would be operational again, though. That’s odd. Engineering is an exact science. Even if a lawyer, he should know what parts would go into which of the 73 dilapidated coaches. He has been with the Dept. of Transportation since 2012, and the rail sector since 2016.

Odder still is this. Parts suppliers mutter that Batan has not ordered from them at all. Thus they wonder how he can broadcast the dates of parts arrival and train repairs. The needed original parts can only come from those exclusive distributors. They know each other; they had supplied to MRT-3’s maintenance contractor Sumitomo in 2000-2012. They knew what subsequent politically influential but technically inept contractors – PH Trams, Global Epcom, and Busan Universal Rail Inc. (BURI) – did. The three merely cannibalized components from rundown coaches, or had worn-out metal parts machine-shopped in Bulacan foundries, or worse, used fakes. Such sleaze had deteriorated MRT-3 starting 2012. Batan is duty-bound to reverse it today, for riders’ safety, convenience, and comfort.

Train parts and components are not sold off the shelf. Most need to be specially molded and assembled at the factory to fit MRT-3’s Czech-made coaches. Those are quality-checked, packed and delivered, then installed and tested by technicians of the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). Ordering to commissioning takes four to six months. Documentation is tedious: DOTr-MRT-3 must ascertain the delivery, origin, quantity, and quality of each part; and certify the installation and test-run. Because the OEMs had blacklisted MRT-3’s three past upkeep outfits, the commuter rail must today pay-on-order.

One of the OEMs from which Batan has not ordered is Thermo King air-conditioning. Each coach needs three air-con units in the front, mid, and rear sections. The last time the European maker delivered was to BURI, 18 units for six coaches, in late 2016. But the latter, tasked to overhaul 43 MRT-3 coaches, reneged on payment deadlines, so Thermo King withheld assembly and delivery of the balance.

Batan should know that the coaches cannot run without air-cons. Jam-packed passengers would faint in the heat, and summer is fast approaching.

Other OEMs from whom Batan has not ordered are for safety, mechanical, electrical and electronic parts and systems. MRT-3 insiders confirm that there are no more inventories in the depot warehouse. Evaluators from JICA, from which DOTr is borrowing $300 million to rehabilitate MRT-3, have found that out and are concerned. (Metro Rail Transit Corp., MRT-3’s private owner-builder, had offered to bring back Sumitomo for the rehab, for only $150 million in 26 months. DOTr chief Arthur Tugade has ignored it.)

Perhaps Batan has something up his sleeve. Maybe he has a surprise plan to get at least 20 three-coach trains running at five-minute intervals at peak hours to take in most of the 560,000 daily riders. Otherwise, it will be another month of mega-traffic wasting P3.5 billion a day – for a total of P105 billion this Mar. That’s enough money for a month’s pay of 10.5 million government clerks and construction workers, or to build a million low-cost homes, or to buy 1,325 new coaches – not from China’s Dalian Corp. any more, of course.

*      *      *

For the first time the UP Madrigal Singers, UP Singing Ambassadors, and UP Concert Chorus will perform together. “MarAwit” is a benefit concert for the children of war in Marawi.

Relieve the music of the three world-renowned multi-awarded chorales on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 6 p.m., at the UP Film Center, behind the Carillon, Diliman, QC. Tickets at P3,000, P2,000, P1,000, available at the box office. Organized by the UP Alumni Association.

*      *      *

Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

Gotcha archives on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jarius-Bondoc/1376602159218459, or The STAR website http://www.philstar.com/author/Jarius%20Bondoc/GOTCHA