CEBU CITY—Light Rail Manila Corp., a joint venture between Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Ayala Corp., proposed to build an interim station between SM City North Edsa and Trinoma mall along Edsa to connect the existing Light Rail Transit Line 1, Metro Rail Transit Line 3 and the planned MRT 7.
“I think our concession agreement stipulates the government will provide us a common station. We cannot dictate on them where that will be. What we’re trying to do is tell them, can we build an interim station in the meantime,” MPIC president and chief executive Jose Ma. Lim told reporters.
LRMC, which won the contract for the LRT 1 Cavite extension project, including the design of the common station near Trinoma, currently operates LRT Line 1.
Lim said the company broached the idea of an interim station for LRT Line 1, MRT 3 and MRT 7 in the latter part of 2015.
“The idea is to have just one station that will be ideal for us and for everyone because all the lines will just meet in that station. It has to be within that triangle of Trinoma and SM,” he said.
Lim said if the proposed interim station concept became acceptable, it could later become a part of the permanent station.
The Transportation Department, SM Prime Holdings Inc., San Miguel Corp., the proponent of MRT 7 have yet to resolve a conflict over the location of a common station for the Metro Manila’s overheard train system in Quezon City.
SM Prime earlier secured a Supreme Court stay order, barring the department from transferring the location of the common station to Trinoma mall of Ayala Land Inc.
To resolve the conflict with the SM Group, the Transportation Department proposed building two common stations, one near SM North Edsa and the other beside Trinoma Mall.
The Transportation Department decided to relocate the common station to Trinoma from SM North, saying the government could save P1 billion from the transfer.
Under an earlier agreement between SM Prime and state-run Light Rail Transit Authority, the common station would be situated beside SM North Edsa. SM Prime already paid the government P200 million for the naming rights for the proposed station.
MPIC chairman Manuel Pangilinan earlier said the best solution to resolve the issue on common station was to build it somewhere between SM North Edsa and Trinoma.
Pangilinan said the two common stations for MRT Line 3, LRT Line 1 and the proposed MRT Line 7 would be inefficient.