After 2 years, Chinese trains used for MRT 3

AFTER two years of gathering dust at the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3’s depot, the controversial trains manufactured by CRRC Dalian Co. of China have finally been put to good use.

Transportation Undersecretary for Rail Timothy John R. Batan said his agency started on Sunday the gradual deployment of the 48 train coaches in the train line, after “an extensive, rigorous, and multilevel audit, assessment, adjustment and validation” of the light-rail vehicles (LRVs).

The Chinese manufacturer agreed to shoulder all costs to solve the issues raised in the independent safety audit and assessment conducted by German company TUV Rheinland.

Dalian started working on modifying the weight, signaling and maintenance equipment compatibility of the trains in July, with Japanese company Toshiba Infrastructure Systems supervising and evaluating the process to ensure that the Chinese company addressed issues raised.

Specialists from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Australia Aid, and local experts from the Philippine National Railways (PNR) also participated in the evaluation and validation.

“We have done a lot of assessments to ensure that these trains are safe. We have addressed all of the issues at no cost to the government,” Batan said.

So far, one train set—consisting of three coaches—has been deployed for commercial service.  The 45 other cars are still undergoing assessment and validation procedures but will be “gradually deployed once cleared.”

To recall, the Aquino administration jump-started the acquisition of 48 new train cars for the Edsa line. It faced several years of delay due to a legal tussle with the owner of the train facility, MRT Corp.’s parent company, MRT Holdings Inc.

Despite having received the first set of trains in early-2016, the government deferred deployment of the new coaches because all 48 light-rail vehicles had to be “optimized and tested.”

Onboard signaling was amiss from the train, and was only procured midway through the construction of the 48 train units.

The onboard signaling system was only installed in the trains in November 2016. The initial batch of trains should have been deployed in March of the same year, based on original targets.

After these problems were settled, the transportation department wanted to deploy the 48 trains in March 2017; however, it failed to do so after groups raised issues on the train’s weight.

The whole expansion project, amounting to P3.8 billion, will increase the capacity of the line to 880,000 daily passengers from a rate capacity of 350,000 commuters per day.

Help from Japan
BATAN noted that solving this issue also paved the way for the tapping of Sumitomo and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the rehabilitation and maintenance of the 18-year-old line.

Since October 15, a Japanese contingency team from the two companies had been deployed to the train line for advance transition works.

“The problem with the MRT 3 is not just the lack of trains, but we also have problems on the old trains, the trails, old signaling systems and many others. We have a lot of issues to address, that is why we adopted a single point of responsibility policy, wherein one service provider will oversee everything,” Batan said.

Sumitomo and Mitsubishi designed and built the MRT 3 in 2000.

The new contract for the Japanese entities’ roles is included in the loan agreement between Tokyo and Manila that will be signed in “early-November,” ahead of the Philippines-Japan High Level Joint Committee on Infrastructure and Economic Development in Manila next month.

Japan is extending a hand to help fix the train system through a P16.98-billion loan facility, which will be used to cover the railway line’s trains, power-supply system, overhead catenary system, radio system, CCTV system, public address system, signaling system, rail tracks,
road-rail vehicles, depot equipment, elevators and escalators, and other station building equipment. Tentatively, the whole deal will take about three-and-a- half years—31 months for the simultaneous rehabilitation and maintenance works to restore train system to its original design condition and capacity, and a year for the defect liability period.

For his part, Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said his people are “working double time to fast-track improvements” to be done for the train line.

“We have no right to be exhausted,” he said.

Currently, the MRT 3 operates with 16 working trains daily, serving roughly 350,000 passengers per day. The government wants to increase this to 600,000 passengers daily.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/after-2-years-chinese-trains-used-for-mrt-3/