Overview[]
The MRT-3, also known as the MRT Line 3, Metro Rail Transit Line 3, or Metrostar Express, is a rapid transit line in Metro Manila in the Philippines. The line runs north to south route following the alignment of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA). Despite its name, the line is more akin to a light rapid transit system owing to its tram-like rolling stock while being mostly elevated with high passenger throughput. This line is officially known as the Yellow Line.
Envisioned in the 1970s and 1980s as part of various feasibility studies, the 13-station, 16.9-kilometer (10.5 mi) line was the second rapid transit line to be built in Metro Manila (After LRT-1) when it started full operations in 2000. The line is owned by the Metro Rail Transit Corporation (MRTC) under a 25-year Build-Lease-Transfer agreement with the Philippine government's Department of Transportation (DOTr), who operates the line.
History[]
Early Planning[]
In 1973, the Overseas Technical Cooperation Agency presented a plan to construct five subway lines in Metro Manila. The study was known as the Urban Transport Study in the Manila Metropolitan Area. One of the five lines, Line 3, was planned as a 24.3-kilometer (15.1 mi) line along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), the region's busiest road corridor. The plan would have resolved the traffic problems of Metro Manila and would have taken 15 years to complete. Another study by JICA was presented in 1976 which included the five lines proposed in 1973. The study recommended heavy rail due to the city's rising population.
During the construction of the first line of the Manila Light Rail Transit System in the early 1980s, Electrowatt Engineering Services of Zurich designed a comprehensive plan for metro service in Metro Manila. The plan—still used as the basis for planning new metro lines—consisted of a 150-kilometer (93 mi) network of rapid transit lines spanning all major corridors within 20 years. The study integrated the previous 1973 OTCA study, the 1976 JICA study, and the 1977 study, which was used as the basis for the LRT Line 1
The Development and early delays[]
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A train in front of Kamuning Station above EDSA
The project was restarted as a light rail project in 1989. DOTC planned to construct a light railway transit line along EDSA, a major thoroughfare in Metropolitan Manila, which would traverse the cities of Quezon, Mandaluyong, Makati, and Pasay. The plan, referred to as EDSA Light Rail Transit III (EDSA LRT III), was intended to provide a mass transit system along EDSA and alleviate the congestion and growing transportation problems in the metropolis. On March 3, 1990, a letter of intent was sent by Eli Levin Enterprises, Inc., represented by Elijahu Levin, to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), now Department of Transportation (DOTr), secretary Oscar Orbos, proposing to construct the EDSA LRT III on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis.
On September 22, 1992, DOTC and EDSA LRT Corporation signed a revised and restated BLT Agreement. The new BLT Agreement defined the project coverage in two phases: Phase 1, which spanned 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) between North Avenue, Quezon City and Taft Avenue, Pasay, and Phase II, which spanned 5.5 kilometers (3.4 mi) from North Avenue to Monumento, Caloocan. The project was approved by the Cabinet on January 19, 1993. On May 6 of that same year, the project was launched by President Fidel V. Ramos.
Construction and opening[]
Construction began on October 15 of the same year, with a BLT agreement signed between the Philippine government and the MRTC. An amended turnkey agreement was later signed on September 16, 1997, with Sumitomo Corporation and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Sumitomo and Mitsubishi subcontracted EEI Corporation and AsiaKonstrukt for the civil works. A separate agreement was signed with ČKD Dopravní Systémy (ČKD Tatra, now part of Siemens AG), the leading builder of trams and light rail vehicles for the Eastern Bloc, on rolling stock. MRTC also retained the services of ICF Kaiser Engineers and Constructors to provide program management and technical oversight of the services for the design, construction management, and commissioning. MRTC would later sign a maintenance agreement with Sumitomo and Mitsubishi for the maintenance of the line on December 10 of the same year.
On December 15, 1999, the initial section from North Avenue to Buendia was inaugurated by President Joseph Estrada with all remaining stations opening on July 20, 2000, a little over a month past the original deadline, due to DOTC's inclusion of additional work orders such as the Tramo flover in Pasay leading to Ninoy Aquino International Airport. However, ridership was initially far below expectations when the line was still partially open, with passengers complaining of the tickets' steep price and the general lack of connectivity of the stations with other modes of public transportation. Passengers' complaints of high ticket prices pointed to the maximum fare of ₱34 (equivalent to ₱79.21 in 2021), which at the time was significantly higher than a comparable journey on those lines operated by the LRTA and the PNR or a similar bus ride along EDSA. Although the MRTC projected 300,000–400,000 passengers riding the system daily, in the first month of operation the system saw a ridership of only 40,000 passengers daily (the ridership improved quickly, however, when passengers experienced significantly faster and convenient travel along EDSA, which experience soon spread by word of mouth). The system was also initially criticized as a white elephant, comparing it to the Manila Light Rail Transit System and the Metro Manila Skyway. To alleviate passenger complaints, the MRTC later reduced passenger fares to ₱15 (equivalent to ₱34.95 in 2021), as per the request of then-President Joseph Estrada and a subsequent government subsidy.
Overcrowding and later decline[]
| Firm | From | Until | |
|---|---|---|---|
| JP | Sumitomo Corporation
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries |
December 10, 1997 | October 19, 2012 |
| PH | TES Philippines Inc | ||
| PH Trams
Comm Builders & Technology |
October 20, 2012 | September 3, 2013 | |
| Autre Porte Technique Global Inc | September 4, 2013 | July 4, 2015 | |
| DE | Schunk Bahn-und Industrietechnik | July 5, 2015 | January 7, 2016 |
| PH | Comm Builders & Technology | ||
| PH & KR | Busan Universal Rail Incorporated | January 8, 2016 | November 5, 2017 |
| PH | Department of Transportation | November 6, 2017 | April 30, 2019 |
| JP & PH | Sumitomo Corporation
TES Philippines Incorporated |
May 1, 2019 | Present |
MRTC projected a capacity breach in the system by 2002. By 2004, the line had the highest ridership of the three lines, with 400,000 passengers daily. By early 2012, the system was carrying around 550,000 to 600,000 commuters during weekdays and was often badly overcrowded during peak times of access during the day and night. The line operated beyond its original designed capacity from 2004 to 2019. In 2011, Sumitomo, through TES Philippines, issued a warning about the overcrowding situation of the line, in which a failure to immediately upgrade the line's trains and systems would result in damage to the trains and systems
By October 2012, DOTC removed Sumitomo as the maintenance provider of the line due to the high costs of the contract. With the entry of the joint venture of Philippine Trans Rail Management and Services Corporation (PH Trams) and Comm Builders & Technology Philippines Corporation (CB&T) as the maintenance provider in 2012, and APT Global in 2013, it marked the start of the deterioration of the line due to poor maintenance by the aforementioned maintenance providers that DOTC appointed. In 2014, there were reported daily incidents and disruptions, and a derailment of one train coach on August 13 of that year. The government of Benigno Aquino III had been planning to buy the line from the MRT Corporation (MRTC), the private concessionaire that built the line, and then bid it out to private bidders. The Aquino government accused the MRTC of neglecting and not improving the services of the line under its watch.
The DOTC tried to bid out a three-year maintenance contract in 2014 and 2015, but both biddings failed because no bidders submitted a bid. Through a negotiated procurement, the Busan joint venture, a joint venture of Busan Transportation Corporation, Edison Development & Construction, Tramat Mercantile Inc., TMICorp Inc., and Castan Corporation, was awarded a three-year maintenance contract by the DOTC. The contract started in January 2016 and was slated to end by January 2019. In 2017, DOTC's succeeding agency, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) attributed the operation's disruptions of the rail system to the Busan joint venture, later known as Busan Universal Rail, Inc. (BURI), with DOTr Transport Undersecretary for Rails Cesar Chavez noting 98 service interruptions and 833 passenger unloadings (or average of twice daily) as well as train derailments in April–June 2017. BURI insisted that the disruptions the railway line was experiencing is due to "inherent design and quality concerns" and not to poor maintenance or normal tear or wear. It said that glitches started occurring since 2000, a claim that MRTC dismissed when Sumitomo was maintaining the system. The maintenance contract was terminated on November 6, 2017.
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A 4 car MRTC Class 3100 parked that is under the capacity expansion in November 2016
Capacity expansion[]
Due to the high ridership of the line, a proposal under study by the DOTC and NEDA proposed to double the current capacity by acquiring additional light rail vehicles to accommodate over 520,000 passengers a day.
In January 2014, the DOTC entered into a contract with CNR Dalian for the procurement of 48 light rail vehicles. The trains, commonly referred to as the Dalian trains, were delivered in batches from 2015 to 2017. The introduction of the new trains would have allowed the line to handle over 800,000 passengers. The Dalian trains entered revenue service in May 2016. However, these became a subject of controversy among government officials, citing its incompatibility with the signaling system and weight limits on tracks. Later, it was revealed that several adjustments to the Dalian trains were required prior to revenue run deployment. The train manufacturer CRRC Dalian has agreed to amend the train specifications to match the contract terms at no cost, and will do so in the soonest possible time. Due to the trains undergoing the said adjustments, they were slowly introduced into regular operations, which led to the start of the gradual deployment on October 27, 2018.
Aside from the procurement of the new trains, the capacity expansion project included the upgrading of the ancillary systems such as the power supply, overhead lines, the extension of the pocket track near Taft Avenue and the modification of the turn back siding north of the North Avenue Station. The original plan also included the upgrading of the signaling system. These upgrades, except for the upgrades to the Taft Avenue pocket track and the North Avenue turn back siding, would only be realized as part of the line's rehabilitation.
Plans were also laid to increase the number of cars in each train set, from the current three cars to four cars, which also increases the number of passengers being accommodated for each trip, from 1,182 passengers to 1,576. The first mention of this plan was in 2013, during the procurement of the new trains. However, in January 2016, an anonymous railway expert warned that the power supply at that time was not capable of handling four-car operations. Despite this, four-car operations were first tested in a Dalian train in May 2016. After the rehabilitation of the line which included the upgrading of the power supply, a dynamic test run for the use of four-car trains for regular operations was conducted on March 9, 2022. Regular four-car operations began in the same month, initially deploying two trains for daily operations, subsequently increased to four. Although full conversion was initially planned to be achieved by 2023, all trains reverted to the existing 3-car configuration a few months after the months-long free rides ended.
Rehabilitation[]
As early as 2011, there were proposals to rehabilitate the line. An unsolicited proposal were made by Metro Pacific Investments in 2011 at a cost of ₱25.1 billion. Another proposal was presented in 2014 at a cost of ₱23.3 billion. In 2017, in the wake of various daily service interruptions in the line, San Miguel Corporation expressed its interest to rehabilitate the line. That same year, Metro Pacific submitted another ₱20 billion proposal to rehabilitate, operate and maintain the line. These proposals however would be rejected by the government.
Following the termination of the maintenance contract with Busan Universal Rail, Inc., the DOTr announced on November 29, 2017, that a government-to-government agreement between the Philippines and Japan would be signed by the end of that year, paving the way for Sumitomo Corporation to return as the maintenance provider of the line. The three-year contract would cover the rehabilitation and maintenance of the line. The ₱22 billion project, partly funded by a ₱18 billion loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, was approved by the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) board of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) on August 17, 2018. It intended to rehabilitate and upgrade the existing systems and trains, for the line to return to its original high-grade design. The project was part of the Build! Build! Build! infrastructure program.
Under the 43-month contract, which was undertaken by Sumitomo, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering (MHIENG; part of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries [MHI] group), and TES Philippines, rehabilitation works were to be done within 26 months. It covers the overhaul of all MRTC Class 3000 vehicles, repairs on the escalators and elevators, rail replacement, upgrades on the signaling and communication systems, power supply, overhead systems, maintenance and station equipment.[70] After the rehabilitation, a 17-month maintenance contract will be undertaken by the Japanese firms. The contract was originally slated to end by December 31, 2022, or 43 months after the start of rehabilitation, but was moved to May 31, 2023.
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Commemorative plaque to mark the completion of the rehabilitation project at Quezon Avenue station.
The rehabilitation was originally scheduled to be completed by July 2021. However, delays brought by the COVID-19 pandemic delayed its completion to the following December. The project was completed on the aforementioned date, as announced by Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade on February 28, 2022. On March 22, President Rodrigo Duterte and Secretary Tugade inaugurated the newly rehabilitated line at a completion ceremony held at Shaw Boulevard station. As part of its completion, free rides were offered initially for a month to combat inflation, but was extended twice until June 30.
On May 26, 2023, a ₱6.9 billion loan was signed by the governments of Japan and the Philippines for the second phase of the project, covering the line's continued maintenance and its connection to the North Triangle Common Station with the lines that would interchange at that station. Four days later, DOTr and Sumitomo signed a contract to extend the latter's maintenance in the railway line until July 31, 2025. Among the projects included under the new contract is the conversion of the trains used on the line from the present three railcars to four, following the previous test runs for the four-car trains in 2022, and the expansion of the Taft Avenue pocket track to cater longer trains. The program aims to increase the line's ridership capacity to 500,000 passengers a day.
Route[]
The lines run along the alignment of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue from North Avenue in Quezon City to an intersection of EDSA and Taft Avenue in Pasay. The rails are mostly elevated and erected either over or along the roads covered, with cut and underground sections between Buendia and Ayala stations, the only underground stations on the line. The rail line serves the cities of Pasay, Makati, Mandaluyong, San Juan and Quezon City. The line crosses Osmeña Highway and South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) at Magallanes Interchange in Makati.
Stations[]
The line has 13 stations along its 16.9-kilometer (10.5 mi) route, spaced on average around 1.3 kilometers (0.81 mi) apart. The southern terminus of the line is Taft Avenue at Pasay Rotonda, the intersection between Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) and Taft Avenue, while the northern terminus is the North Avenue along EDSA in Barangay Bagong Pag-asa, Quezon City. And the line has 3 station along its route: The Magallanes Station interchanges with PNR's EDSA Station; While the Araneta Center–Cubao station is indirectly connected to the LRT-2 station with the same name; Taft Avenue is connected via a covered walkway to the LRT Line 1 EDSA station.There no more stations with interchanges in this line, whoever by 2025 the North Triangle Station
| Date Opened | Project | Stations |
|---|---|---|
| December 15, 1999 | Phase 1 | North Avenue-Buendia |
| July 20, 2000 | Ayala-Taft Avenue | |
| 2025 | North Triangle |
| Name | Distance (KM) | Connections | Locations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Between Stations | Total | |||
| North Triangle | N/A | N/A | LRT-1,MRT-7 | Quezon City |
| North Avenue* | 0 | |||
| Quezon Avenue | 1.2 | |||
| GMA-Kamuning | 1 | 2.2 | ||
| Araneta Center-Cubao | 1.9 | 4.1 | ||
| Santolan-Annapolis | 1.5 | 5.6 | ||
| Ortigas | 2.3 | 7.9 | Mandaluyong | |
| Shaw Boulevard | N/A | |||
| Boni | ||||
| Guadalupe | Makati | |||
| Buendia | ||||
| Ayala | ||||
| Magallanes | ||||
| Taft Avenue* | Pasay | |||