The best solution to resolve the issue on common rail station on North Ave. in Quezon City is to build it somewhere between SM North Edsa and Trinoma shopping mall of Ayala Land Inc. Business honcho Manuel V. Pangilinan, or MVP made this unsolicited proposal.
As both malls are expected to benefit from the construction of a common station between them, MVP thinks the government should let the two mall operators spend their own money for the establishment of the common station.
Under the “two common stations” compromise proposed by the Transportation Department, there will be a station at Trinoma and another one at SM North. The proposal, however, is “not very efficient” because the distance between the two common stations is only a few meters.
MVP’s Metro Pacific is closely watching the issue, as the infrastructure conglomerate is a part of the consortium that won the LRT 1 line extension project. It is also eyeing the operation and management of LRT Line 2 and has recently revived its offer to take over MRT Line 3.
What the government should do, as suggested by MVP, is to build a common station somewhere in the middle of the two malls and let the two mall operators to pay for the cost of building the facility, as they will directly benefit from the station in terms of increased foot traffic.
MVP said the government got it right when it decided to build the NAIA Expressway project and let the casino four developers operating in the Entertainment City to shoulder part of the cost of the project, as they will also benefit from the new toll road.
SM Prime Holdings president Hans Sy said the group will insist that the common station be built at SM North Edsa, not only because of a previous agreement with the government but also for the fact that more people are going to their mall. “I don’t even want to challenge the foot traffic.. but it would be nice to show and know that in terms of ‘criticality’ the common station should be with us,” Sy said.“I will insist on my right the common station should be with us. But if they want to do it also on the other side [Trinoma] it’s up to them,” Sy said.