They’ve inked the deal and now we hope it pushes through.
“The government has just signed an agreement with major conglomerates to set up a common station linking the upcoming Metro Rail Transit Line-7 to the Light Rail Transit Line 1 and Metro Rail Transit Line 3 will be located between SM North EDSA and Trinoma malls in the vicinity of EDSA and North Avenue,” reports Louella Desiderio in The Philippine Star.
Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the completion of the common station is expected in two and a half years. He remarked, “We have come to an agreement, a groundbreaking, assuming the doables are done, the architectural and engineering designs are done and agreed upon, hopefully we can ground break before the end of this year.”
Aside from Tugade, SM Prime Holdings Inc. president Hans Sy, Universal Light Rail Corp. BV Ltd. chairman and president Ramon Ang, Light Rail Manila Corp. vice chairman Manuel Pangilinan, and Ayala Land Inc. vice chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (representing North Triangle Depot Commercial Corp.) were also present at the signing.
The signatories, as the report indicated, “vowed to work together to resolve all pending issues on the common station to link the three railways in Metro Manila: the LRT-1, the MRT-3, and the MRT-7, which being built by San Miguel Corp. subsidiary ULC.”
LRT-1 is currently operated and managed by LRMC comprised of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Ayala Corp. and Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines). It runs from Roosevelt station in Quezon City to Baclaran station in Parañaque.
The MRT-3 spans North Avenue station in Quezon City to Taft Avenue station in Pasay City.
The MRT-7 will cover North Avenue in Quezon City to San Jose del Monte in Bulacan.
