PSA: You can ride the MRT-3 for free from March 28 to April 30
Good news, commuters! President Rodrigo Duterte and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) announced that the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) will be offering free rides from March 28 to April 30.
The free rides come as a way to celebrate the rehabilitation of the train line under the Duterte administration.
"I want to take this opportunity to promote the rehabilitated MRT before our communiting public and assure our kababayans that service disruptions are a thing of the past," the president said during the rehabilitated train line's inauguration on March 22.
"Secretary Arthur Tugade and I decided that the MRT-3 rides will be free, hindi naman forever — from March 28 to April 30," he continued.
JUST IN: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Art Tugade announced that the MRT-3 will offer FREE RIDES to rail line's passengers from 28 March to 30 April 2022.
— DOTrPH 🇵🇭 (@DOTrPH) March 22, 2022
READ MORE: https://t.co/YuESkrSmFO pic.twitter.com/0gJV0uSBe3
The MRT-3 rehabilitation project began in 2018 as part of Duterte's Build Build Build program. The government tapped the services of Sumitomo-MHI, the original designer, builder, and maintenance provider of the transite line.
Before its rehabilitation, the MRT-3 suffered from issues that caused passengers to alight mid-commute.
According to Tugade, operations of the train line have improved. Train interval was reduced from nine minutes to 3.5 minutes, while ridership capacity is said to have increased from 200,000 to 600,000 passengers per day.
The transportation secretary added that train speeds have been raised from 25 to 30 kph to 60 kph. There are also now 18 to 22 operating trains from the previous 12 to 15.
Under Alert Level 1, the MRT-3 operates at 100% passenger capacity.