WHILE the government works to resolve the partial closure of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 2 over the next nine months, it is also moving forward with the planned extension of the line all the way to the port area in Manila.
Reynaldo I. Berroya, the administrator of the LRT Authority, said his group is tasked to complete the P10.1-billion West Extension of the East-West Line by 2023. The government will shoulder the construction of the new stations from Recto to Pier 4.
With the extension, Berroya said travel time from the port area in Manila to the east-most station of Masinag, to be opened in 2020, will not exceed an hour.
“The increase in commuters who will benefit from the extension project translates to the reduction of commuters not using Metro Manila’s congested streets. LRT 2 as a public mass transportation will be the way to go for ease of commuting,” he said.
The procurement for the contractors for the west extension will start in January. It has been in the government’s drawing board for two administrations now with the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) already approving the alignment in 2015.
When completed, it will add three stations to the current and future East-West Line, namely: Divisoria, Tutuban and Pier 4. It is expected to add 16,000 daily passengers to the train system.
“Easier journey awaits commuters who wish to make purchases at Tutuban and Divisoria, or those who will journey via ships found in North Harbor,” Berroya said.
Today, the LRT 2 operates at limited capacity from Cubao to Recto, after a power rectifier was razed by fire earlier this month. It currently serves around 240,000 passengers daily. The government is gunning to open the East Extension of the train line—running from Santolan, Pasig to Masinag, Antipolo—by the fourth quarter of 2020.