The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is investigating possible locations for a large terminal for the EDSA bus carousel to avoid traffic congestion and long queues of commuters near Monumento in the town of Caloocan.
“We are considering three areas in Caloocan for the staging area or terminal similar to PITX [Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange]. One is the PNR Compound in Sangandaan Caloocan, the second is the Victory Liner, which is four kilometers from the Valenzuela side and the other is in the Monumento area next to the Starbucks restaurant,” said the president of the LTFRB, Cheloy Garafil.
“Transport Secretary Jaime Bautista has asked us to do an eye inspection of the three areas and then we can decide if it is possible to convert them into an assembly area,” she added.
The EDSA Busway recorded a total ridership of 47,104,197 in 2021, serving an average passenger volume of 129,000 per day. The government contracted Mega Manila Consortium Corporation and ES Transport to operate the EDSA bus carousel.
Garafil said earlier that the EDSA carousel could still support improvements such as solving the long distance between some stations in major commercial districts like Cubao and Ortigas Center and the need for a unified fleet management system to do better. coping with the influx of passengers during peak hours.
She also said that the EDSA bus carousel lacked facilities for people with disabilities (PWD).
Garafil said the government pays between 74 and 76 million pesos per week for the deployment of Carousel buses along the EDSA.
The LTFRB has already paid about 659 million pesos for the two bus companies and will settle the remaining 300 million pesos by the end of this month.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier announced the extension of free rides on the EDSA Bus Carousel through the end of 2022.
The DOTr said earlier that the government needed an additional budget of 1.4 billion pesos to fund free bus rides for commuters until the end of the year.
The previous administration had previously allocated 7 billion pesos for the Libran Sake program from the national budget, which will end in September this year.
Comments are closed.