The Department of Transportation (DOTr) announced on Tuesday that operations of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 will be suspended for four weekends from July to September for rail replacement works.
Dates covered by the suspension are: July 4 and July 5, August 8 and August 9, August 21 and August 23, and September 12 and September 13.
“The weekend suspension of operations will also enable Sumitomo-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the service provider for MRT-3’s comprehensive rehabilitation, to perform rail destressing, rerailing, turnouts replacement, resurfacing, rail profile grinding, ballasting and tamping, and other major works for MRT-3’s trains, electrical systems, and other subsystems,” the advisory read.
Rail replacement works are scheduled to be completed by September.
“After rail replacement works are completed, train operating speed will gradually increase from 40 kilometers per hour to 60kph by December 2020, and headway, or the interval between trains, will gradually decrease to 3.5 minutes,” the advisory read.
The DOTr will be implementing its bus augmentation program to accommodate MRT-3 weekend passengers, who will be affected by the temporary suspension of services.