I the Problem and Its Background introduction

PRESENT MOVERS

Today, public transportations in Metro Manila are relatively easy to use. It is as easy as waving your hands pretty much anywhere and anytime in the street and immediately a public utility vehicle would stop by. When it comes to riding a transit, it is also relatively easy, there’s a lot of sign and instructions at train stations and one just have to read and follow them. It is said that there are four major modes of transport in Metro Manila: Buses, Jeepneys, Taxis and transits .

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  Buses
  

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  Jeepneys
  

Since then it received a fairly amount a recognition and becomes of the most known symbol of the Philippines and national pride. Today, it travels most of the Metro’s secondary road and sometimes even the major highways. One could always find a jeepney anytime of the day; in fact there are jeepneys for 24hrs. Minimum fare is now P7.50 for the first four kilometers and additional P1.25 for every succeeding kilometer. Discounts are for disabled, elders and students with the fair of P6 for the first four kilometers and additional P1 for the succeeding kilometer.

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  Taxi
  

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  Transit
  

Transit system in the Philippines is known as the Light Rail Transit. The formation of Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) in 1980 paved the way for the greatly assisted by a 30-year interest-free loan from the Belgian government. LRT1 is a fully elevated north-south route that opened in December 1, 1984 (7km) and June 1985 (8km). It goes through Rizal and Taft Avenue composing of 18 stations with average station distance of 825m and stations are only accessible by stairs. Also it has a 1435 mm gauge and 750V overhead power supply; furthermore all trains are single manned and fitted with automatic speed regulation equipment and the brakes are automatically set too. There is also a plan to extend LRT1 further south. The first phase stations after the Baclaran Station are named Redemptorist, Manila International Airport (MIA), Asia World, Ninoy Aquino, Dr. Santos, Manuyo Uno, Las Piñas, Zapote, Talaba, and Niyog. This section will be built by Canadian firm SNC Lavalin International. Further phases will take Line 1 southwards to Imus (11km) and later to Dasmariñas (11km).

Line2 of the LRTA has been finished recently. Compared to the other transit system in the Philippines it is at most the most comfortable, spacious and efficient train system basically because, even though it is called LRT it uses a heavy rail metro vehicles. It runs from Santolan all the way to Recto, usually servicing the students from the University belt. There are also plans of extending the line further east to Masinag Junction in Antipolo, Rizal.

Also there is the Philippine National Railway or PNR. It is common to see it on the news in the television or in the newspaper because of all the accidents and several problems it faces. It stretches from Tayuman to Naga.

There are also several other projects planned for further expansion of transit in our country like the MRT 4 which is a 22.6km (20 stations) mostly elevated line running northeast from Doroteo José/Recto in Manila to Quirino Highway in Novaliches, Quezon City connecting with North Ave. Stn. on line 3 and passing through España, Quezon Blvd,, Commonwealth and Regalado Avenues. The project will be divided into two phases; Phase 1 would be the section of Old Bilibid - Batasan (15.1km) passing through España St., Quezon Blvd. and Commonwealth Ave. 14 stations: Old Bilibid, UST, Mendoza, Antipolo, Welcome Rotonda, Araneta, Roosevelt, Timog, Edsa, Quezon City Hall, Philcoa, Tandang Sora, Don Antonio and Batasan while Phase 2 would bride through Batasan - Quirino Highway in Lagro (7.5km). 36 light rail vehicles are proposed to operate, providing a capacity of 550,000 passengers per day. Another is the MRT 7 which is planned on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City up to Tala in Caloocan City, and the adjoining municipality of San Jose del Monte in Bulacan. And the MRT 8, or East Line, will traverse 48 km with several tunnel sections (7.8 km) from Pililla to Santa Cruz, Laguna. Phase 1 will run for 16.8 km on elevated double-track guideways from Santa Mesa, Manila, to Taytay, Rizal; then from Taytay to Angono, Rizal, serving to decongest Manila, Mandaluyong and Pasig, and the towns of Cainta, Taytay and Angono. It will follow the general alignment of Shaw Boulevard and Ortigas Avenue and entail construction of 14 stations.”

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  Pedicabs and Tricycles
  

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  FX
  

As the 19^th century opened, the average person walked to work. Cities were dense and compact; the geographical area of a city was largely limited to the radius of walking distance from the center. Some wealthy families lived on the outskirts and traveled by horseback or carriage, but horses were too expensive for common people to keep. The modern era of urban mass transit began in 1819 giving birth to the first transit service in the United States which was started by Abraham Brower on Broadway in New York City in 1827.

In 1825 a coach builder named George Shillibeer was commissioned to build specially designed coaches with large seating capacity for use in Paris. The vehicle was called Omnibus, a name coined by a Frenchman named Baudry for a coach he ran I the town of Nantes. The Omnibus was introduced in New York City in 1831 by John Stephenson, who became the largest manufacturer of transit vehicles in the 19^th century.

A major advance came in the form of the horse-drawn street railway. The first one in the world was New York and Harlem Railroad., which began service on November 26, 1832. It was the brainchild f John Mason, president of Chemical Bank, who formed a company and raised $350,000 in capital. The cars were built by Stephenson. The use of horses was first considered temporary, to last only until the steam railroad could be extended from Albany to New York, but those horses performed well and were never replaced by steam engines.

In this system, a cable is laid in a small trough between the rails and is kept in continuous motion by a steam engine located at the end of the line. A car is propelled by griping onto the cable with a metal arm that reaches down; the grip is released when the car brakes to a stop. The car itself has no motor. Besides a driver-conductor, each car carries a grip man, who must develop skill at the trade.

The streetcar-also called the electric railway, trolley, or tram-was the next most important innovation. The first successful demonstration was staged by Werner von Siemens, of the famous German family of investors, at an industrial exposition in Berlin in 1879. his company, Siemens and Halske, built a 1.5-mile line in Litcherfelde, a suburb of Berlin, that began revenue passenger service in 1881.

The 19^th century also witnessed the development of steam railroads. The first intercity railroad service began in 1830 between Liverpool and Manchester in England. This is inaugurated a century in which steel wheels on steel rails became the dominant form of intercity transportation. The railroad industry formed a major part in the economy, much as the automotive industry does now.

Several attempts were made to introduce steam trains into the heart of the cities. The first subway in the world, 3.7 miles long, opened in London on January 10, 1863. the trains were pulled by steam locomotives, and while special efforts were made to expel the smoke, ventilation remained a major problem. The line was popularly called the sewer railway. However, it continued to operate for many years and eventually was electrified. A better idea seemed to put steam trains on elevated tracks over the street. Charles T. Harvey built an elevated line with cable traction on Greenwich Street in New York City in 1868, but the venture was not successful economically, and in 1871 new trains ran in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens until the end of the century.

The forerunner of the private motor vehicle was the road locomotive. This was a steam engine on wheels-something like a railroad locomotive, but with flat-surfaced wheels to run on highways. The first one was built by Richard Trevithick in England in 1801, but it was too heavy for the roads of the time. Steam omnibuses operated in England for some years; they were considered a threat by both stagecoach operators and railways. Steam was one of the several power sources tried. One early automobile was the Stanley Steamer, which the Stanley twins started making in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1897.

MRT stand for either as Mass Rapid Transit or Metro Rail Transit but it is safe to simply call it MRT3 or by its popular name Metrostar. It runs along the median of EDSA or Epifanio de los Santos Avenue from North Triangle in Quezon City in the north to Taft Avenue Pasay City in the south. MRT3 takes advantaged of EDSA’s undulating ground surface, there are elevated surface and underground sections that helps the tracks past obstacles. But mostly the tracks are elevated, except the part going to Buendia up to Ayala.

Phase I is divided into two sections, the central section which opened on December 16, 1999 and with stations North to Buendia; and the southern section that followed on July 20, 2000 with stations from Buendia to Taft. The total length is now 16.8km and once the Northern section (Phase II) is built - from North, Roosevelt, Balintawak and Monumento - the line will be 24km.

It is important to note that MRT3 is a BOT (Built Operate Transfer) project meaning it must make a profit. This is because Metro Manila lacks infrastructure and financial resources thus the government welcomes foreign capitals to fund public works and pass the BOT law to ease restrictions on foreign investment and also to allow improvements with respect to public works. Furthermore, The estimated cost for Phase I is US$655 million. The American firm, Kaiser Engineering International, is the engineering and construction manager. Sumitomo and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan are the turnkey contractors. Ckd Tatra Ltd/Tradeinvest of the Czech Federal Republic is supplying the rolling stock.

After the first months of operation, ridership was far below expectations, mainly due to the high fares. The company then was forced to cut the fare twice since the original fare was thrice that of the public bus fare; hence the total number of passengers, since then become competitive with those for buses. Another reason why the ridership was low during the first month of operation is because of the long freight of stairs to access elevated stations. Before you can reach the station one would probably be perspiring very hard because of the steepness and long freight of stairs but improvements have already been done like the installation of elevators and escalators to provide easier access to high stations. The bulk of the patrons for MRT3 are students and middle-class business people.

As one have seen in the map it includes vital stops that is popular for the Filipinos like the Cubao station which is a walking distance from Farmers Plaza, Araneta Coliseum which is an activity center for huge gathering like concerts and sports games like basketball etc. Ali Mall which is just few steps away from the Bus Terminal heading to different provinces to the North and South of the country, and different terminals of other forms of transportation; another is Ortigas and Shaw stations, from where one can walk to go to Mega Mall and Shangri-la plaza, two of the more famous shopping place in the country, from those two stations you could find your way to Ortigas, a fast developing business place in Metro Manila and also another walk is the EDSA central terminal in which you could find all kinds of transportation usually catering to the residents in the east; lastly Ayala Station and Buendia station, in which one could easily walk or get a ride to the central business district of the country, and also one could walk his or her way from Ayala station to ones favorite malls like Glorietta or Landmark and finally relax and have fun at Greenbelt area. All of these are strategically considered in building the MRT3, to be able to make places more accessible to people from North to South.

Metrostar trains are air-conditioned. The fare starts from 10-15 pesos per ride that assumes that people who make use of it make the minimum wage; and its operation is usually from 5:30am to 9:00pm and now extended to 11:30 pm. MRT3 was built and leased out to our government by The Metro Rail Transit Corporation (MRTC) that is led by the Fil-Estate Group owned by the Sobrepena family. Under the build-lease-and-transfer arrangement, the government must pay the MRTC consortium a total of $2.4 billion over 25 years. The government is obliged to pay MRTC about $20 million this year; $38 million next year and $39 million in 2006. The annual payment will increase to $118.33 million in 2010.

MTA (METROPOLITAN TRANSPORT AUTHORITY)

The MTA operates the largest transit and commuter rail transportation system in North America and one of the largest in the world. No area of this country is more thoroughly integrated into its public transportation network than the New York City metropolitan region. As a result, the region's economy and quality of life depends on the smooth daily operation of the MTA public transportation, bridge and tunnel network.

The scope of services provided by the MTA is staggering. More than 2.3 billion passengers are served each year, and every weekday, the MTA carries nearly eight million passengers, more than the entire population of many states in this country. Almost 90 percent of the peak hour trips into the Manhattan central business district are made using public transportation. Two of every three rapid transit trips and nearly half of all commuter rail trips taken nationally are on MTA carriers.

It is abundantly clear that one of the most important activities affecting the economy and well-being of this region is advancing the MTA five-year capital program for 2005-2009. The program is the sixth in a series to continue the progress of rebuilding the region's mass transportation network and improving that network to achieve even greater reliability and enhanced service levels.

The first five-year capital program was launched in 1982 in an effort to reverse a near-complete breakdown of the New York City public transportation system. Over the next ten years, a program of sustained rescue and recovery work was implemented. Investments were necessarily focused on the restoration and maintenance of the existing network. As a result, MTA agencies have made major strides in bringing all or substantial portions of their assets into a state-of-good-repair. Replacing component systems according to useful-life cycles, rather than when they are failing, is increasingly the standard practice.

The most recent capital program for 2000-2004 has been a remarkable achievement in itself. In May 2000 the $17.1 billion 2000-2004 Capital Program was approved by the Capital Program Review Board; by December 2004, the addition of World Trade Center repair work (rebuilding the 1/9 line), the MTA security program, the Lower Manhattan recovery projects, the acceleration of M-7 rail car purchases, and the addition of funds for MTA Bus ultimately increased the value of the program to $19.6 billion.

By the end of 2004, 95 percent of the core work of the five-year program had been committed. Thirty-five percent of the core program funding supported the state-of-good-repair needs of the MTA system, 49 percent supported normal replacement of system components at or near the end of their useful life, and 13 percent went to system improvement. MTA Capital Construction committed 58 percent of a $2.6 billion budget for the major expansion projects under its auspices.

Over the course of the 2000-04 Capital Program, MTA New York City Transit fully retired its old "Redbird" fleet and purchased 1,210 new "high-tech" rail cars, 520 of which are currently in service. Of 885 new buses ordered, 685 are in service. A total of 68 station rehabilitations, including Times Square, are underway and 19 have been completed. These rehabilitations are perhaps the most dramatic evidence of capital improvement and upgrading, but improvements are also underway in invisible infrastructure essential to system operation, such as pumps, fans, relays, and signals.

Along with these accomplishments, NYC Transit restored 1/9 service in a remarkably quick nine-month recovery from the World Trade Center attacks.

MTA Long Island Rail Road's new bi-level diesel fleet is fully in service as are 344 of 678 ordered M-7 electric cars. The railroad's 2000-2004 track and concrete tie program has been completed as planned and 700 of 1,400 new parking spaces are under construction or complete. LIRR's M-3 overhauls and Atlantic Terminal and Jamaica Station projects are well underway.

The 2000-2004 Capital Program witnessed the purchase and delivery of the first 180 of 300 new M-7 electric cars MTA Metro-North Railroad has ordered; 65 coaches have also been ordered and nine locomotives have been delivered. Nine Hudson Line stations are being rehabilitated; two - including the historic Yonkers station - have been completed, and seven others are underway. Other projects that are underway include 1,532 of 2,027 new parking spaces, Hudson Line Overpass improvements, design work for Harlem Line station renovations, and network infrastructure upgrades. Phase II of the Harmon Shop and Yard replacement is underway and Phase III design is complete.

MTA Bridges and Tunnels completed the largest rehabilitation project in its history, the roadway deck rehabilitation of the suspension span and Queens viaduct of the Triborough Bridge, and completely replaced the roadway deck of the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Bridge.

The 2000-2004 Capital Program also saw the beginning of the first MTA expansion projects in six decades. That will add needed capacity for a ridership increase that has not been seen in decades and for growing the New York City regional economy.

Under New York Governor George E. Pataki's Master Links program, initiated in 1996. MTA agencies are cooperating with New York City and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to move toward a unified regional transportation system that will link business centers, communities and airports with each other and the rest of the region. This effort focused on several projects: to provide Long Island commuters with access to the east side of Manhattan via Grand Central Terminal; to improve subway services on the east side of Manhattan with the construction of a new service along Second Avenue; and to provide direct rail access to JFK airports.