New mass rail system passing under BGC in final stages of planning – DOTC chief Abaya

A P135-billion railway system, the Mass Transit Loop System, that will partly run beneath the Bonifacio Global City is in the final stages of planning, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) said Monday. 

 

The 20-kilometer (km) loop will include 16 kms of underground railway and 4 km of elevated tracks over the Pasay City reclamation area, as well as 11 stations – two elevated, four interchanges and five underground.

 

The government is now trying to resolve the best option to take regarding Bonifacio Global City, and that this whether to have a terminal station on 26th Street or 32nd Street, Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said.

 

If the terminal station will be on 26th Street, the transit stations will include Market-Market, McKinley Parkway, 5th Avenue, Ayala/EDSA, Ayala Triangle, Makati Post Office, PNR Buendia, Buendia/Taft Ave., World Trade Center, Mall of Asia, and EDSA/Taft Ave.

 

If the Loop will have a terminal on 32nd St., the stations will include Market-Market, St. Lukes Medical Center, MRT3 Buendia Station, Ayala/EDSA, Ayala Triangle, Makati Post Office, PNR Buendia, Buendia/Taft Avenue, World Trade Center, Mall of Asia, and EDSA/Taft Ave.

 

The DOTC is now talking to officials of Manila Golf Club if they would not object to having the underground rail system passing beneath McKinley Road, Abaya said.

 

“We are talking to Manila Golf for approval," he said.

 

The Loop is part of the Rail Transport Development Plan to increase mass transport passengers to 2.2 million a day by 2016 or 2017 from the present level of 1.2 million a day. – VS, GMA News