Increase in LRT-1 fare sought

THE PRIVATE sector operator of the Light Rail Transit Line 1 is seeking the Department of Transportation’s approval for a fare hike in line with a contract it won under the previous administration.

Light Rail Manila Corp., led by Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Ayala Corp., said it would ask the government for a 10-percent fare increase for the LRT-1. A meeting with the DOTr was set for this week, according to Metro Pacific president Jose Ma. K. Lim.

Light Rail Manila  won the P65-billion public private partnership deal that called for the expansion of the 20.7-kilometer LRT-1 in Metro Manila to Cavite province. It also assumed operations of the LRT-1 in September last year.

Under the PPP contract, fares should be adjusted every two years. Railway fares were last adjusted on Jan. 4, 2015. It should have come in 2014, but this was pushed back due to the unpopularity of the move.

The government also had the option to provide another subsidy, and compensate the private railway operator if it decided not to allow the fare increase. Operations of the LRT-2 and the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 in Metro Manila are already partially subsidized by the government. The three railway lines serve more than a million commuters daily.

Light Rail Manila is investing in the expansion of LRT-1 by another 11.7-km to Bacoor, Cavite.

The company previously locked horns with the government. After wining the PPP, it said  the train line’s condition was worse off than what was agreed upon in their contract. Light Rail Manila earlier sought P1.8 billion in compensation, which the DOTr under the Aquino administration disputed.

The LRT-1 opened in the early 1980s, making it Southeast Asia’s oldest metro rail system.

The DOTr’s last fare hike for the LRT-1, LRT-2 and MRT-3 was considered controversial, partly because of its timing just after the Christmas and New Year holidays in January 2015.

For that process, the DOTr implemented an earlier agreed-upon fare hike structure calling for a base fare of P11 plus P1 per succeeding kilometer.

The DOTr justified the 2015 fare increase by saying it had to cut costly subsidies, amounting to about P12 billion annually, by about P2 billion. It said the money would instead be redirected to other social infrastructure and relief projects across the country. The last fare increase for LRT 1 before the 2015 hike was in 2003.