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WHEN CAN COMMUTERS FIND LIGHT AT THE END OF THE MRT 3 TUNNEL?
Supparsorn | Dreamstime.com
From bad to worse to...
Chaos is the order of the day at Metro Rail Transit train stations, as commuters literally have to elbow their way in and out of overloaded train cars during rush hour. Photo taken March 28, 2013. ED DAVAD
O
By Lorenz S. Marasigan
PERATING at half of its capacity, the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 has been subjecting its daily riders to what some have described as their worst commuting experiences in years.
Today, the railway system operates with about 10 trains during revenue hours—exactly half of its original capacity of 20 trains running. This is a breath of fresh air for commuters, who, for weeks, had to make do with just seven trains running even during peak hours. But even before the train line slumped to this sorry state, it was already touted as the most con-
gested railway system in Metro Manila. It was previously serving more than half-a-million passengers per day in 2015, when queues were already long, and the trains were constantly jam-packed during peak revenue hours. These 20 trains ferry roughly 550,000 people daily, way above its rated capacity of 350,000 passengers per day.
Metro life sans MRT 3
Commuters also suffered when the MRT 3’s operations were halted for an hour or two, no thanks to several glitches in the power supply of the railway system. Although the government has organized its different transportation offices to remedy the situation, it was not enough to avert an operation stoppage during peak hours.
One time, the interagency traffic crisis team mobilized a truck to transport people from Quezon Avenue Station to Ayala Station. A video of people scrambling to get into the truck—one without proper ladder—circulated in social media, showing the real scenario of what life without the MRT 3 in Metro Manila looks like. Continued on A2
Finding the ‘magic bullet’ to finally end air-traffic congestion at Naia
W
By Recto Mercene
ill the 40 “events per hour” landing and takeoff volume at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), the country’s premier airport, improve once the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines’s P10.8billion new communications navigation surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ ATM) project becomes fully operational by the end of 2018? PESO exchange rates n US 52.0730
While the answer to this hangs, aviation officials say the new CNS/ATM should enable airlines to meet departure and arrival schedules, and provide a safer, more efficient air-traffic flow. But is it the magic bullet that will solve—at last— the festering problems of air-traffic congestion at the Naia? Ferdinand A. Tienzo, division chief of Enroute Control, who also heads the Air Traffic Control & Airspace Management Department, Air Traffic Services, provided an insight on the current situation besetting the Naia in an interview with the BUSINESSMIRROR.
Tienzo said the International Civil Aviation Organization (Icao) had mandated that aircraft separation in the Philippines should be 5 nautical miles at any given time and event. “Since the Naia has essentially one international runway, which is 06-24, the accepted separation between airplanes is 5 miles, even those on final approach to landing,” he informed. Tienzo noted that there is another shorter runway, 13-31, which can accommodate smaller airplanes. With 8 miles separation on final approach, he said, the tower can
“insert” an airplane on the runway to make an immediate takeoff. Tienzo pointed out that highly developed countries have two parallel runways, one runway dedicated to takeoffs and the other runway exclusive for landings. Air controllers at the tower and approach used to be located in separate buildings in Manila. With the new CNS/ATM in place, they are now housed in the same room at the Philippine Air Traffic Management Center (PATMC) “for efficiency and safety.” Today, controllers of both sectors also share space with the Area Control Center, which directs
airplanes within a 200-nauticalmile radius from the Naia. These airplanes come from all points of the compass to enter the country’s exclusive airspace, called the Philippine Flight Information Region (FIR). This arrangement makes for efficient “transfer” of control of airplanes from neighboring countries to the Philippines. Shortly before entering the Philippines’s airspace, area controllers from other countries instruct pilots to switch radio frequency to be able to talk to the Philippine side, which, in turn, Continued on A2
n japan 0.4897 n UK 72.5846 n HK 6.6407 n CHINA 8.2400 n singapore 39.6535 n australia 40.6065 n EU 64.0758 n SAUDI arabia 13.8854
Source: BSP (March 16, 2018 )