LRT-MRT common station agreement to be signed this month

Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Arthur Tugade has confirmed that the agreement on the LRT-MRT common station will be signed this month.

The common station is set to be built between Ayala Land’s Trinoma Mall and SM North EDSA in Quezon City. The station would connect the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3), the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1), and the proposed MRT Line 7 in Quezon City. According to Tugade, stakeholders Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corporation, Manny Pangilinan of Light Rail Manila Consortium and Augusto Zobel, owner of Ayala Malls, have agreed to finalize the project after a private meeting with him.

“We tried to meet separately and collectively with all the stakeholders. The last meeting was done yesterday with no less than the heads, stakeholders meeting with me, in a private meeting,” Sec. Tugade said.

Tugade also confirmed that SM Prime Holdings agreed on the location of the common station between SM North EDSA and Trinoma. Tugade also explained that the stakeholders saw the importance of having one single station and that they agreed on the intention to not burden commuters in making them walk distantly.

“What we have basically agreed upon, number 1, all of them saw the importance of 1 single station. All of them saw the difficulty of making people walk to do connectivity between LRT’s and MRT’s,” he explained.

Last 2011, SM Prime Holdings gave 200 million pesos to LRTA for the naming rights of the common station. But in 2014, then DOTC secretary Jun Abaya decided to transfer the location of the common station near Trinoma Mall. The case reached the court but SM Prime Holdings loss the case. The 200-million peso cash bond is still in the possession of LRTA and will be sent back as soon as possible.
The DOT is proposing a budget of P55.47 billion for 2017, 25 percent higher than this year’s budget.

 

Source: news.abs-cbn.com, untvweb.com