The Transportation department’s endorsement of a senator’s proposal to offer a business class coach for the Metro Rail Transit 3 that plies Epifanio de los Santos Avenue drew a mouthful from a member of the House of Representatives who said the agency should make sure first that the trains run.
“Putting up business class coaches at this time will only divert the focus of the Department of Transportation from addressing the pressing and important need to bring commuters to their destination safely and on time,” Quezon City Rep. Precious Hipolito Castelo said.
Castelo, vice chairman of the House Committee on Metro Manila Development, said “all logistics and resources should concentrate on how to keep the train moving.”
She said a safe, efficient and moving mass transit should be the focus now. “As of now [the operations of] MRT coaches are erratic, insufficient, and totally unreliable causing inconvenience and suffering to consumers,” Castelo said.
Earlier, Senator Grace Poe raised the idea of having a business class in MRT 3 where passengers can be charged P200 to P300 per ride.
The senator asked the Department of Transportation to consider her proposal during a recent Senate hearing on the agency’s budget for 2020.
In response, DOTr chief Arthur Tugade said they will look into Poe’s proposal which is similar to the design of trains to be set up in Clark, Bicol and Mindanao.
However, Castelo, wife of former Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo, said considering the urgent need for the government to improve the plight of commuters, the DOTr should be reminded of its priority.
“Ayusin muna natin ang mga tren bago ang luho,” Castelo said. “The priority now is to have the trains moving, free from any defect that would make them stall midtrack like we are experiencing now,” she added.
She said people will understand that even when there’s no first class coaches for as long as the train does not break down.