This sounds like fun.
“The Mandaluyong City government has received clearance from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to build its own rail line, which will connect the city hall complex to the EDSA-bound Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and the Ortigas business district,” reports Rainier Allan Ronda in The Philippine Star.
Councilor Roehl Bacar, chairman of the city council’s committee on engineering and public works, confirmed that the DOTC favorably endorses the city’s Automated People Mover (APM) project.
The report noted: “Bacar said the APM is different from the ‘monorail’ system, which is being proposed by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority as a public rail line transport in Bonifacio Global City to connect the emerging central business district with the Ninoy Aquino International Airport terminals.
Bacar explained, “It’s a radial wheel-based technology. With a concrete guideway and signaling similar to trains except it’s using rubber tires.”
The report further noted: “Compared to the MRT and Light Rail Transit coaches, APM coaches are smaller, more flexible, can be coupled up to six cars, has a higher passenger capacity and can accommodate up to 90 to 100 passengers per car. Vehicles can operate up to a speed of 80 kilometers per hour.”
According to plan, “the APM will have a vertical depot on top of the current Mandaluyong city hall, and will run through to Shaw Boulevard, cross at-grade through EDSA onto the rising Greenfield business district, and turn right to the heart of the Ortigas business district with a station at the San Miguel Corp. headquarters on San Miguel Avenue, and then right to SM Megamall.”
Bacar said that “the APM can be extended straight to Shaw Boulevard, either westward into Manila or eastward into Pasig and Quezon City and to Marikina, even the cities of Cainta and Antipolo.”
