Expect more MRT problems – official

With the drop in temperatures that cause train rails to crack, expect more problems to crop up and disrupt the operations of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3), an official of the mass rail transit system said on Tuesday.

To avoid further accidents once a glitch in the system has been discovered, the operations of MRT-3 are temporarily suspended, said MRT General Manager Roman Buenafe.

So far this year, there have been 16 incidents involving rail breakages and hairline cracks.

On Monday, the MRT operations were confined between the North Avenue station in Quezon City and Shaw Boulevard in Mandaluyong City after a rail suposedly cracked between the Ayala and Magallanes stations at 9:13 a.m. The MRT said the breakage was due to low temperature.

Based on Science Garden data, the minimum temperature on Monday was 21.7° Celsius, compared with a low of 19.4° Celsius on February 8 and a high of 33.3° Celsius on February 2.

In January 2015, the MRT awarded the supply contract for 7,296 linear meters of iron rails "to better assure the railway's safety and reliability," the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) said earlier.

However, the installation contract has yet to be awarded and so the rails have not yet been installed, according to the DOTC.

The first round of bidding for the installation contract was declared a failure. The second round has been scheduled on February 22.

The installation of the iron rails will take five months to complete. – with Maki Pulido and Jon Viktor Cabuenas/VS, GMA News