Another public transport system suffered a temporary breakdown on the first working day of 2023, as the operations of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 were disrupted Tuesday afternoon due to a rolling stock problem.
In an advisory, the MRT-3 management said it implemented a provisional service from North Avenue station to Shaw Boulevard station, and vice versa, “due to a rolling stock problem reported at the interstations of Taft and Magallanes (northbound)” at around 4:26 p.m.
At least six stations were closed temporarily, south of the Shaw Boulevard station—the Boni, Guadalupe, Buendia, Ayala, Magallanes, and Taft Avenue stops.
At around 4:30 p.m., the train system running the length of Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) resumed, with 17 train sets running on the mainline from North Avenue to Taft Avenue station (vice versa).
Earlier, MRT-3 General Manager Federico Canar Jr. conducted a surprise inspection of the MRT-3 mainline from North Avenue to Shaw Boulevard stations to check the operational status and enforcement of health and safety protocols at the MRT-3.
Canar inspected commuter welfare desks, station control rooms, ticketing booths, comfort rooms, escalators, and elevators.
A total of 98,591 passengers were served by the MRT-3 during the morning peak hours of 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., much higher than 28,670 during the same time period on Jan. 2, 2023.
On January 2, a holiday, MRT3 served 224,163 passengers and recorded an average of 12 train sets deployed on the mainline.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, MRT3 served more than 500,000 passengers a day, exceeding the system’s designed capacity of 350,00 passengers daily.
MRT-3 runs from North Avenue in Quezon City to Taft in Pasay City. It operates at a speed of up to 60 kilometers per hour (kph) from the previous 25 kph.