The Department of Transportation expects the common station linking Light Rail Transit Line 1, Metro Rail Transit Line 3, the MRT Line 7 and the planned Metro Manila Subway to be completed by 2021.
It said the 13,700-square-meter concourse area connecting the four mass transit systems at the corner of EDSA and North Ave. in Quezon City would be operational by 2021. Once completed, the common station would serve about 478,000 passengers daily.
The Unified Grand Central Station Area A, costing about P2.8 billion, will be constructed by the consortium of BF Corp. and Foresight Development and Surveying Company.
Area B of the common station—an area connecting Areas A and C that would be financed, built and operated by North Triangle Depot Commercial Corp., an affiliate of Ayala Land Inc.—is now 96-percent completed.
Area C for MRT-7 platform will be financed, built and operated by San Miguel Corp.
The common station project has been stalled since 2009, but the Transportation Department settled the dispute on the location leading to its groundbreaking in September 2017.
Meanwhile, the DOTR said the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension project was expected to be fully operational by the third quarter of 2023.
It said the progress rate for the 11.7-km railway from Baclaran to Niog, Bacoor in Cavite was 30.74 percent. Once completed, the extension project is expected to increase LRT-1’s capacity from 500,000 to 800,000 passengers a day and reduce travel time between Baclaran and Bacoor from 1 to 2 hours to only 25 minutes.
LRMC won the bidding for the 11.7-km. Cavite extension project and took over the operation of LRT Line 1 on Sept. 12, 2015.
Metro Pacific Investments Corp., through Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp., owns 55 percent of LRMC, while AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. has a 35-percent stake and Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Inc. holds the balance.