Busan Universal Rail Inc., the maintenance provider of Metro Rail Transit Line 3, said Thursday it will deliver more serviceable trains ahead of the holiday season.
“The holiday season swiftly approaches now. We would like to focus more on delivering serviceable trains for use by the riding public. And with this in mind, we are seeking the cooperation of MRT and DOTr officials so we could pursue our common endeavor of delivering the necessary service to the riding public,” BURI legal counsel Charles Mercado said in a statement.
MRT-3 continues to meet key performance index at 18 trains and 20 trains during peak hours, higher than the 13 trains when it took over in January 2016, according to Mercado.
Mercado said the DOTr-MRT-3 management had agreed to finally implement BURI’s previous recommendation for MRT trains to run at lower speed at certain sections of the line due to poor track condition.
The company said that last month and upon its own request, the MRT management conducted a series of joint train rides and inspections to confirm BURI’s repeated reports that train glitches were being caused by severe vibrations brought onto the MRT coaches by the decrepit condition of the rails.
“In BURI’s letters to DOTr-MRT-3 on the poor rail condition, BURI has been telling DOTr to immediately implement the systematic total rail replacement, which, as early as November 2015, DOTr had committed to implement by mid-2016. It is already 2017, but no such project has commenced,” Mercado said.
Mercado also called on the transport official in charge of the rail system to stop bickering and issuing what BURI called misleading information against the company’s performance. Mercado said the on-going tussle was counter-productive and could imperil the service line.
He said BURI was being unjustly accused of billing DOTr for spare parts allegedly bought from an auto repair shop in Bangkal. Mercado said BURI had never bought spare parts from any auto repair shop. He said BURI was only billing on the basis of services rendered, and not for the purchase or reimbursement of spare parts.
“The daily barrage of finger-pointing, including the unjust and negative public pronouncements of DOTr Undersecretary for Railway Cesar Chavez against our company unduly alarms the public, specifically regular commuters who have no better alternative to taking the MRT-3,” Mercado said.
BURI filed graft charges against Chavez, senior technical assistant Hernando Cabrera and Jorgette Bellen, program head of Uici-Seoul Metro-Dong-IL-JF Cancio Joint Venture Program before the Office of Ombudsman for allegedly delaying the payment of BURI’s monthly billings.
BURI said total unpaid bills reached P176 million for services already rendered to the DOTr-MRT3 in the maintenance component of the contract.
