LTFRB opening 3 new bus & jeep routes during PNR closure

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) is opening three new routes for public utility vehicles to serve commuters to be affected by the three-year closure of the Philippine National Railway (PNR), the former announced Friday, June 23. In the next 5 years, the PNR will build the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR), an "urban railway network" spanning 147 kilometers to connect Metro Manila-Pampanga and Metro Manila-Laguna. The project will affect 30,000 commuters per day. Hence, the LTFRB will open the FTI-Divisoria via East Service Road route and the Alabang (Starmall)-Divisoria via South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) route for public buses. The agency will likewise open the Malabon-Divisoria route for Modern Public Utility Jeepneys (MPUJs). In total, 30 units of public buses are expected to ply the FTI-Divisoria routes, 25 units will ply the Alabang (Starmall)-Divisoria routes, and 5 MPUJs will serve the Malabon-Divisoria route. However, the LTFRB maintains the number of vehicles to be permitted to operate on the three routes can change, depending on the volume of passengers. The choice of operators who will be allowed to ply the routes will be in accordance with Memorandum Circular No. 2019-013, the Consolidated Guidelines on the Process of Issuance of Certificate of Public Convenience (CPC) and Provisional Authority (PA)/Special Permit (SP) Under the Omnibus Franchising Guidelines and Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP). The memorandum states that the registration of public vehicles to be authorized to ply the new routes should not exceed 5 years, based on their Land Transportation Office (LTO) Certificate of Registration. Aside from this, the vehicles should operate using a special permit valid for one year, renewable every year, until the NSCR is fully operational. LTFRB Board-approved fares for public buses apply on the new routes. “The effect of the closure of these select PNR stations on commuters will be quite substantial so, through these PUV routes, we hope to lessen the impact of the closure," stated LTFRB Chairman Teofilo Guadiz III. "We appreciate the help of the PNR in identifying the routes and we know that once the NSCR is completed, its benefits would be truly worth it in terms of passenger mobility along our railways," he concluded.