LTFRB eyes more buses for EDSA carousel

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) said it plans to add more buses to reduce the waiting time of passengers on the EDSA bus carousel.

In a report by Cedric Castillo on “24 Oras,” LTFRB said that schedules of bus arrivals are not being followed.

“Pag-aslis ng isang bus dapat yung two minutes, meron kaagad ‘yan kapalit doon. Maraming instances po na yung two or three minutes walang dumarating na bus. In fact, kung minsan, inaabot pa yan ng 10 minutes,” LTFRB chairman Teofilo Guadiz III said.

Currently, the EDSA bus carousel operates 550 buses, but there are bus companies that cannot deploy 100% on the given route.

“By Wednesday po nandon po ako sa carousel and I will personally look into it. Kapag nakita ko na meron pang gap o lapses, then by Thursday, papapasukin ko yung 50 new buses that are not a part of the consortium to add buses,” Guadiz added.

LTFRB also said that the Libreng Sakay program will return by either the first or second quarter of the year.

“Depende po sa kakayahan ng budget kung hangang saan namin mas-stretch yung P1.4 billion na budget, if you’ll release it by February, tatagal po ito hanggang July,” he added.—Sherylin Untalan/LDF, GMA Integrated News