EDSA commuters can save on their daily transport fare for the whole month of April by taking the EDSA bus carousel and/or the MRT-3.
Subsidy and ayuda seem to be the government’s solution to the rise in oil prices in the past weeks.
President Rodrigo Duterte recently announced a month-long free ride program on the MRT-3 while the Department of Transportation (DOTr) will be resuming the EDSA Bus Carousel Bus next week.
On Tuesday, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) announced the release of P7 billion to DOTr for the expansion of the service contracting program for affected public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers and for cash subsidies.
With this, the DOTr and the Land Transportation and Regulatory Board will be able to resume the EDSA carousel bus and shoulder the operation costs of select jeepneys.
The free bus rides along EDSA will start next week, the last week of March 2022. Last year, the carousel service was relied upon when the MRT-3 suspended operations on Holy Week.
MRT-3 will shut down again on Holy Week this year, which is expected to be from April 10 to 16.
However, commuters will be able to enjoy free MRT-3 rides for a whole month starting March 28 to April 30, as announced by President Duterte during the MRT-3 rehabilitation completion ceremony.
'Thing of the past'
“I want to take this opportunity to promote the rehabilitated MRT to the commuting public and assure our kababayans that service disruptions are a thing of the past,” Duterte said.
Among the upgrades and refurbishing that were done during the MRT-3 rehabilitation were the overhaul of the Light Rail Vehicles, replacement of mainline tracks, rehabilitated power and overhead catenary systems, upgraded signaling, communications, and CCTV systems.
Duterte also celebrated the increased number of trains from 12 to 15 operating units, now up to 18 to 22 operational trains and the increased train speed to 60kph from 25 kph.
During his Talk to the People message on Tuesday, the President urged the public to make use of public transportation such as the MRT, LRT, or bus in commuting amid high oil prices.
Tags: #commuting, #transportation, #freerides, #dotr, #prrd