MRT 7 builder must learn from MRT woes—Castelo The builder of future railway systems in the country including the MRT 7 set for construction in December this year should learn from the dilemmas curently plaquing MRT-Edsa. This was stressed by Quezon City Rep. Winston ‘Winnie’ Castelo yesterday as the lawmaker conducted an inspection of the MRT by taking a ride at the mass railway system from Quezon City to Makati before going to Malacanang for a meeting with President Aquino. After the ride and inspection, Castelo concluded that the mistakes in MRT should no longer be repeated in the railway system projects to be implemented by the government this year and beyond. “Its important that whoever will build the next railway system projects learn from the current woes of MRT in Edsa,” Castelo, chairman of the Committee on Metro Manila Development, said. “Our future trains especially that of MRT 7 should be safe, efficient and reliable,” Castelo added. Castelo’s statement gathers relevance as construction of MRT 7 is scheduled to start in December this year. Castelo said once completed and operational, the railway system will traverse Quezon City including its second district represented by the lawmaker. “Of course, we’re not only talking about the welfare of my constituents in Quezon City but the entire riding public who has the right to demand better services from a modern and sound railway transportation system,” Castelo explained. Complaints against the MRT in Edsa continue to snowball following its involvement in a series of accidents that injured passengers. This was followed by a number of mechanical problems experienced by mass transit system lately which fueled more anger from the riding public. Observers blamed the problems were blamed on the old coaches and lack of proper maintenance. Meanwhile, Castelo discovered more problems during his MRT ride from the North-Edsa to Makati yesterday. During his rush-hour trip, the lawmaker took notes of the following: MRT3 System Observation. 1. The passenger queue is so long. They are on the sidewalk and it poses a danger of being hit by the buses at EDSA 2. Queuing takes about 30 mins. from the sidewalk to the ticketing area and another 15 minutes from the platform to getting inside the train. 3. Based on the design and previous experience, travel time from North Avenue station to Taft Avenue station is 30 minutes. 4. Some of the tiles at the stairs, concourse and at the platform are already chipped off. This poses a danger to the passenger as somebody might trip. 5. Some escalator and elevators are not working, those that are working has this dragging sound. The escalator handrail is already deteriorated. 6. Station comfort room is dirty. Some toilet bowls are not working. 7. The passengers at the platform are too many; there is the danger of them being pushed towards the train. 8. Train Interval is too long. Usually about 7-8 mins. 9.The train is full of passengers. Specially the second and third cars and there appears to be insufficient train handle bars for passenger to hold on to. 10. It’s relatively slow. Hence travel time is quite long 11. Air-conditioning should improve inside the train especially at noon time, according to passengers. “By finding out these problems, we will know what and how to avoid such in our furture train systems,” Castelo said. Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 01:24:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015