The Transportation Department said it is studying a proposal by Light Rail Manila Corp. to build an interim station between SM City North Edsa and Trinoma mall to connect the overhead mass rail systems in Quezon City.
“It looks good. The stakeholders already discussed it, but more work needs to be done,” Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya told reporters.
LRMC, which won the contract for the Light Rail Transit Line 1 Cavite extension project, including the design of the common station near Trinoma, currently operates LRT Line 1.
LRMC, a joint venture between Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp., proposed an interim station connecting LRT Line 1, Metro Rail Transit Line 3 and MRT 7.
“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,” MPIC president and chief executive Jose Ma. Lim 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 overheard train systems.
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.