LRT ridership up 6 percent to 9.42M in Feb

The Light Rail Transit Authority on Tuesday said train ridership in February grew 6 percent to 9.42 million as more trains were made available to the public. In a statement sent to the media, the agency said there were 8.88 million train passengers in the same period last year. The LRTA operates two train lines, Line 1 which runs from Baclaran to Monumento, and Line 2, which ferries passengers to and from Santolan and Recto. LRTA Administrator Mel Robles said additional trains were deployed during peak hours to accommodate more human traffic. Robles said 83 LRVs were deployed during morning rush hours and 86 in the afternoon, compared with the 70 LRVs available and running last year. Morning peak starts from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. while afternoon peak starts from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. “It has always been our firm commitment to make available more trains to the public. That is why we are maintaining the availability of at least 25 trains on peak hours and an average of 22 trains per 17 hours of operation for the Line 1 system and 12 train sets per 17 hours of operation for the Line 2 system," Robles said in the statement. Robles said ridership and revenue for Line 1 reached a record high of 402,055 passengers translating into a net fare revenue of P5,664,808 for a single regular day on March 2, 2007. “Usually our highest ridership occurs on days falling under special occasions like the Feast of the Black Nazarene. But despite the fact that there was no special occasion our ridership was very high on that day," LRTA Administrator Mel Robles said. “The ridership trend is increasing if we look at our previous three years record. On the feast of the Black Nazarene in January 9 alone we drew around 432,591 passengers to the Line 1 system, compared to last year’s celebration which attracted around 428,845 passengers" Robles added. The LRTA has yet to report its collection for 2006. During the first nine moths of 2006, it recorded a net loss of P896.30 million, up 48 percent from P606 million it registered in the same period in 2005. LRTA’s Line 1 posted a net loss of P187.22 million from P227 million. Revenues slightly went up to P1.18 million from P1.10 million. Line 2 incurred a net loss of P709.08 million on the back of P470.84 million revenues from January to September last year as against P379.37 million net loss and P405 million in revenues recorded in the same period in 2005. In all, revenues for the two railway lines slightly went up to P1.65 billion in the first nine months as against P1.51 billion in the same period a year ago.-GMANews.TV