Common rail station dispute still hangs

THE DEPARTMENT of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has yet to offer any concrete solution to the more than year-long dispute clouding a connecting railway station in Quezon City that aims to link at least three elevated train lines in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

SM Prime Holdings Inc., which is locked in a legal dispute with the DOTC over the station’s location, remained open to the department’s latest proposal calling for the construction of two train stations but the department has yet to provide them with all the details, company president Hans Sy said.

“What was presented to us was only the concept,” Sy told reporters at the sidelines of Philippine Airlines’ launch of its improved frequent flyer program late Monday. “We would appreciate it if it was the complete set of plans.”

“You cannot approve on concept, if it’s a concept it can still be changed,” Sy added.

Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Private sector stakeholders are awaiting the DOTC’s decision on a two-common station proposal that was floated as a compromise after the DOTC allegedly breached last year a 2009 agreement with Henry Sy’s SM Prime Holdings.

The 2009 agreement called for a train station near SM Prime’s SM City North Edsa shopping mall that would connect the Light Rail Transit Line 1 ( LRT-1), Metro Rail Transit Line 3 ( MRT-3) and eventually the MRT-7, which will be built by a consortium led by San Miguel Corp.

Train stations are coveted pieces of infrastructure because of the foot traffic they deliver to nearby establishments.

The problem started in 2014 when the DOTC decided to transfer the location near rival Ayala Land Inc.’s Trinoma Shopping Mall, saying this was more advantageous to commuters. The decision was included in the P65-billion public-private partnership (PPP) contract for the extension of LRT-1 to Cavite province that Manuel V. Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Ayala Land owner Ayala Corp had won.

This prompted SM Prime to take its fight to the Supreme Court, which has yet to decide on the matter. Under the two station proposal, a connecting station will be built each near the SM City and Trinoma properties, which are hundreds of meters apart.

“What I can tell you right now is we are still open to what they want. But we want something more fixed,” Sy said.

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