Common station row soon to be settled

The Transportation Department and big business groups are close to resolving a long-running dispute over the location of a Quezon City connecting railway station, which will link three major elevated trains in Metro Manila.

Ayala Corp. managing director John Eric Francia said in a business forum the firm was already in “advanced” talks with the Transportation Department, SM Group and San Miguel Corp. to end an impasse that has cast the spotlight on the sanctity of business contracts in the Philippines.

Speaking for the Ayala and Metro Pacific Investments-backed operator of Light Rail Transit Line 1, Francia said there would be a single common station “in between” SM Group’s SM City North Edsa and the adjacent Trinoma Shopping Mall, controlled by Ayala Land Inc.

“We are already discussing details on design, the terms. It’s fairly in the advanced stage,” Francia said.

He said the plan to build a single common station in between both shopping malls was better for commuters. “It’s [a] win-win for everyone,” he said.

Railway stations are coveted infrastructure projects because of the foot traffic they lure. This particular connecting station was valuable because it was envisioned to link the Metro Rail Transit Line 3, LRT-1 and eventually MRT-7 being built by San Miguel.

The issue started in 2014 when the then Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), headed by former Secretary Joseph Abaya, decided to move the location of the station to an area near the Trinoma mall. This, despite a 2009 agreement SM had with the Light Rail Transit Authority for the station to be built near SM City North Edsa’s Annex mall.

The department, which claimed the move was more beneficial to commuters, outlined this transfer in the contract for the LRT-1 Cavite extension public private partnership project, won by Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. that same year.