More than 500 passengers of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 were offloaded on Wednesday reportedly after a power failure in the rail’s line.
In an advisory, the MRT 3 said the power malfunction occurred at 10:17 a.m. from Ayala Station to Taft Avenue Station.
At 10:34 a.m., a total of 508 passengers were evacuated and had to walk to the interstation of Magallanes and Ayala (northbound).
A minute later, power was restored to the rail line.
In a message sent to the media, MRT 3 communications officer Rose Anne dela Cruz said walking over the rails is not dangerous since the trains are powered through overhead catenary cables and not through rails.
“According to our engineers, hindi po risky ang pagbabalik ng power supply habang naglalakad sa riles ang mga pasahero dahil ang power ay nasa itaas at hindi naman po sa riles (It is not risky to restore thepower supply while passengers were walking in the rails because the power runs above and not through the rails),” Dela Cruz said.
As of 12:15 p.m., Dela Cruz said the rail line resumed normal operation with 13 trains running with a wait time of about 9.5 minutes between trains.
Last May 1, the Department of Transportation initiated a comprehensive rehabilitation of the MRT 3 which aims to increase the number of running trains, increase its operating speed, increase passenger capacity from 300,000 to 600,000 daily, and lessen the average wait time between trains from 8 minutes to 3.5 minutes.
The P18-billion rehabilitation project was awarded to Sumitomo-MHI-TESP and was tasked to replace all rails along the MRT 3’s 17-kilometer line, overhaul all 72 light rail cars, among other improvements.
The MRT 3 said the rehabilitation will take 26 months to complete or finish on July 2021.
Meanwhile, MRT 3 officials said Wednesday that senior citizens would continue to enjoy free rides this week in celebration of the Elderly Filipino Week.
In an advisory, the MRT-3 management said rides for elderly people are free from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. from October 1 to 7.
The MRT-3 has given free rides to a total of 106,455 students, from pre-school to college students, including those in trade or vocational schools but excluding those in graduate school.
Free rides for students are available from 5 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays except on holidays or during class suspensions affecting the entire Metro Manila.
The MRT-3 said the initiative aims to reduce the number of passengers during peak hours by encouraging students to go to school and home early and to help students save money on transportation.
“Layunin ng nasabing inisyatibo na matulungan ang mga mag-aaral mula preschool hanggang kolehiyo, kasama na ang mula sa mga trade/vocational school na makatipid sa pamasahe (The goal of the initiative is to help students from pre-school to college, including those in trade/vocational schools to save money on fares),” the MRT-3 said in an update posted
MRT-3’s dela Cruz said that aside from offering free rides to students, the MRT-3 also offers free transportation to other groups during holidays upon request and validation.
“Other free rides ay depende sa (depend on the) request of certain groups, such as kapag (during) Teacher’s Day, Seafarer’s Day, etc.,” dela Cruz said in a message.
Students who would like to avail of the free ride program only need to show their school identification or registration form to MRT-3 personnel in service gates within MRT-3 stations.
