LRTA says more Beep cards delivered, warns vs. scalpers selling online

The Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) on Friday said more Beep cards have been delivered for the fourth quarter, which may ease the ongoing shortage.

Interviewed on Super Radyo dzBB, LRTA administrator Hernando Cabrera said concessionaire AF Payments Inc. has fulfilled its commitment of delivering 45,000 Beep cards for Light Rail Transit Line 2.

“Maiibsan na 'yung ating shortage. We’re hoping na made-deliver na ‘yung kakulangan nila within December (The shortage would be eased. We’re hoping that they will deliver their deficiency within December),” he said.

For Line 1, Cabrera said only 34,500 of the 70,000 committed Beep cards have been delivered so far while 59,000 of the 70,000 Beep cards for Line 3.

Cabrera said a shortage of Beep cards was reported in the third and fourth quarter.

Earlier, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) warned of shortage of the stored-value passenger train cards due to  global chip supply chain problems.

Cabrera said scalpers took advantage of the shortage and sold old, near expiration, and overpriced Beep cards online.

“Ang lumalabas ang binebenta nila 'yung existing na nakokolekta nila at ang binebenta mga gamit, luma na na malapit nang mag-expire,” he said.

(Our initial investigation showed that the scalpers are selling used, old, and near expiration Beep cards they have collected.)

Cabrera said train passengers tend to buy more than one Beep card as a reserve, collection of different series, and souvenirs that may aggravate the shortage.

He added that many train passengers also tend to neglect and lose their Beep card because it is cheap.

Due to this, Cabrera said there is a proposal to slightly increase the price of the Beep card, which is currently P30.

“May proposal ‘yan, 'yan ang tinitingnan namin na taasan natin nang kaunti para bigyan nila ng kahalagahan 'yung card at pag-ingatan nila kasi somehow the government is spending for that,” he said.

(There is a proposal and we are looking at increasing the price of Beep cards so passengers will value and take care of it because somehow the government is spending for that.)

Meanwhile, Cabrera said the pilot test on the use of QR codes as tickets in the train systems has been finished. He said they are now working on making a contract for its implementation.—AOL, GMA Integrated News