Building the subway train system, which government officials describe as one of the long term solutions to solve the worsening traffic situation in the metropolis, will take at least eight years.
“It will start within the Duterte administration, and will take eight years at least. There will be a signing [agreement] between Japan and the Philippine before the end of the year and the process will start early next year,” said Thomas Orbos, general manager of the Metro Manila Development Authority.
“This will be a 27-kilometer [subway] from Taguig FTI [Food Terminal Institute] to Mindanao Avenue [Quezon City],” he added.
Orbos, also the concurrent Transportation Undersecretary for Road, said the Japan International Cooperation Agency is now conducting a feasibility study for the subway system, which is in line with government’s Build Build Build program.
The subway system, to be patterned after those in Hong Kong and Japan, will start from the area of Trinoma Mall at the intersection of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue and North Avenue in Quezon City and end at the Food Terminal Inc. in Taguig City.
It will be designed to withstand a magnitude 8.0 earthquake, since the nearby Marikina Valley Fault System can reach a magnitude of 7.2-7.6 on the scale.
The subway train is also expected to reduce the time it takes to travel from Quezon City to Taguig in just 31 minutes.
“The solution [to traffic] really is subway, railway and adequate public transport,” said Orbos.
Traffic in the National Capital Region caused an estimated productivity loss of around P2.4 billion a day or more than P800 billion a year.
Government officials said Metro Manila is still in need of inter-city expressway of 426 kilometers until 2030. They added that the metropolis also needs urban and suburban railways of six main lines with 246 kilometers and five secondary lines with 72 kilometers, respectively, to improve traffic in the Philippines, especially the NCR.
In 2014, JICA released a video presentation of the “Roadmap for Transport Infrastructure Development for Metro Manila and Its Surrounding Areas” (Infra Roadmap for Mega Manila).
The roadmap study was conducted in response to the request by National Economic and Development Authority in order to formulate a comprehensive transport roadmap towards 2030.
The transport roadmap emphasizes the need to establish better north-south connectivity and appropriate hierarchy of different transportation modes such as roads, railways, and other mass transits. This forms the Dream Plan to have a modern, affordable and a well-coordinated and integrated transport system for Mega-Manila by 2030.
