Light Rail Manila Corp., the private sector operator of the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1), is pushing for a P5 increase in fare to assure the construction of the extension stage to Bacoor in Cavite.
LRMC president Juan Alfonso said the fare increase would give banks the confidence to lend to the company the funds for the Cavite extension.
Alfonso said the P30-billion Cavite extension project would allow travel from Baclaran to Sucat in only 15 minutes; to Las Pinas, 20 minutes; and to Bacoor, 30 minutes.
“We can virtually guarantee these travel times because we are traffic-free. And we are investing P5 for every P1 revenue to ensure that LRT-1 is efficient, trouble-free, and also clean. Today, trains come every 3.5 minutes, down from 5 minutes when LRMC took over operations and maintenance in 2015,” he said.
The average fare is proposed to increase to P25, or just about the same as a bus fare, and much lower than taxi and transport network company fares, “without traffic,” Alfonso said.
