President Duterte is expected to inaugurate on Tuesday, March 22, the newly-rehabilitated Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3 which promises of a faster and safer mass transport along EDSA.
The MRT3 Rehabilitation Project started in May 2019 and was completed in December last year, part of the improvements are the restoration of all its 72 Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs), replacement of all rail tracks, and rehabilitation and upgrade of its power supply, overhead catenary system, communications and signaling system, and stations and depot facilities and equipment.
MRT-3 passengers can now be assured of faster, safer, and more convenient travel with the completion of the MRT3 Rehabilitation Project after its underwent a comprehensive rehabilitation and upgrade," a statement from Department of Transportation (DOTR) read.
The inauguration is at 3 p.m. Tuesday, with DOTr Sec. Art Tugade joining the President.
The MRT-3 Rehabilitation Project was funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The rehabilitation and upgrade were undertaken by its original contractor and maintenance provider, Japan's Sumitomo Corporation and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
"The project restored MRT-3's high quality design condition, after many years of poor maintenance and degradation. With its rehabilitation completed, the hundreds of unloading incidents from stalled MRT-3 trains are now a thing of the past," the statement read.
Tugade said the operating conditions of the MRT-3 have greatly improved.
He said it can now operate with a speed of 60 kilometers per hour from the previous 25 kilometer per hour.
The number of trains also increased from a low of 13, now up to as high as 23 operational trains.
Headway, or the waiting time between trains, have been reduced from a high of 10 minutes, down to as low as 3.5 minutes. And as a result of all these, end to end travel time (from North Ave. Station to Taft Station) has been reduced from one hour 15 minutes, down to 45 minutes.