Deployment of MRT 3 Dalian trains to entail additional cost, DOTr chief says

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is tweaking the maintenance contract of Sumitomo Corp. to include the Chinese-manufactured trains for the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3, all of which are still commercially unused even if they have been delivered almost half a decade ago.

Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said with the slight change in the concession agreement with Sumitomo will allow the government to deploy the Dalian-made trains progressively starting this year.

“It is still being negotiated because they handle maintenance and operation. So, if you’re going to add the new trains that they will maintain and operate, there will be additional costs,” he said in a recent interview.

He declined to reveal the projected increase in the P18-billion deal with Sumitomo. The existing contract also covers a “comprehensive rehabilitation” of the train line.

“We are hoping to deploy one I think this September during off-peak hours,” Tugade said.

To recall, the Aquino administration jump-started the acquisition of new trains for the railway line and tapped Dalian for the said contract. However, despite its full delivery three years ago, the government decided not to use the trains due to technical issues raised by experts.

Dalian has since agreed to shoulder all costs to solve the issues raised in the independent safety audit and assessment conducted by German company TUV Rheinland, modifying the weight, signaling, and maintenance equipment of the 48 coaches.

Tugade noted that while he wants to deploy the new trains to provide better services to commuters, he would also want to address issues on the operability of the railway system, specifically the capacity of the rails to accommodate 48 new coaches.

“We cannot deploy them all at once because we had to test if the existing rails can accommodate them because of the added capacity,” he explained. “There are many considerations for this.”

These, he said, will also be considered in the tweaking of the Sumitomo contract, which will spell out the number of Dalian trains that will be deployed on the MRT 3.

“It is subject to the agreement between Sumitomo and us,” he said. “But what is definite is we have broken the barrier: One Dalian train will be used by September.”

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/09/03/deployment-of-mrt-3-dalian-trains-to-entail-additional-cost-dotr-chief-says/