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RAILWAY
fares for Lines 1 and 2 of the Light Railway Transit (LRT)
will remain unchanged, the Light Rail Transit Authority
(LRTA) said Wednesday.
“There
is no plan to increase and there will be no fare
increase,” said LRTA administrator Melquiades Robles.
Jeepney,
bus and taxi fares will go up this Friday but railway
fares won’t. “The President does not want any fare
adjustment for now,” added Robles.
LRTA
passengers using single- journey tickets are being
charged P12 for the first four stations and P15 for the
rest of the route, while stored-value ticket holders
are being charged P12 for the first four stations, P13
for five to eight stations, P14 for nine to 12 stations
and P15 for 13 to 15 stations.
The
agency’s January-to-May ridership rose by 13 percent to
64.33 million compared with the same period a year ago.
For the
first five months of the year, Line 1 of the railway
system, which spans from Baclaran to Monumento,
registered 64,330,818 passengers.
In the
same period last year, the LRTA reported a ridership of
56.72 million for its Line 1.
Meanwhile, the LRTA said actual construction for the
LRTA North Extension Project started Wednesday following
a topping-off ceremony early Wednesday morning near the
Caloocan-Monumento Circle.
In a
statement, Robles said the construction of the project
is a timely response to the rising cost of fuel, which
is currently pegged at P61 for gasoline and P55 for
diesel.
“I am
very much pleased that our North Extension Project has
moved one step to becoming a reality. The additional
stations will be a great addition to the community and
will bring the much-needed relief to the traffic in the
area,” Robles added.
“Riding
the LRT is the most efficient, fastest and cheapest way
and proven more so with the current fare among other
modes of transportation,” added Robles.
The
extension project, touted as the “Closing the Loop”
project will connect LRTA’s Monumento Station to MRT’s
North Avenue Station through an entirely elevated 5.4-km
viaduct and is set to be completed by May 2010.
The
project will also include the construction of three new
station—Balintawak, Roosevelt and North Stations, which
will be equipped with escalators and elevators.
With the
said project, average daily ridership is set to increase
by 66.16 percent, or a total of 535,558 passengers from
the current average of 361,432 passengers.
The
North Extension Project is a priority project of
President Arroyo to ease traffic congestion in the
metropolis. Other expansion projects that will be
undertaken by LRTA are the Cavite extension in the south
and Santolan extension in the east.
Robles
also announced plans of the LRTA to develop a
park-and-ride system near the LRT Lines that will help
enable commuters to leave their cars securely and avail
themselves of rail service. |
