DOTr apologizes over MRT aircon leak

AIRCON LEAK. An MRT rider takes a video of passengers with their umbrellas open inside the train due to the aircon leak. (Screenshot from Giselle Tolosa’s Facebook account)

MANILA — The Department of Transportation-Metro Rail Transit 3 (DOTr-MRT-3) has apologized over a leak in an air-conditioning unit (ACU) of one of its train coaches Tuesday afternoon.

This after a video of the incident showing passengers with umbrellas opened inside the train due to the leak went viral over social media.

“The DOTr MRT-3 sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience brought to passengers by a leak from one MRT-3 air-conditioning unit (ACU) yesterday afternoon,” the MRT-3 said in a statement posted on its official Twitter account Wednesday.

The affected train was fixed by technicians and brought to its depot in North Avenue. Eventually, the leaking stopped while on its way as cleaners were deployed along Guadalupe and Buendia stations to mop the area of the train.

The MRT-3 assured commuters that a total of 42 new ACUs will start arriving between August 12 to 19, 2018. They were procured by its maintenance team from an original equipment manufacturer earlier this year.

It said the ACUs were last replaced in 2008 as part of the system’s first general overhaul eight years after it started operating in 2000.

General overhaul should be done every eight years thus ACUs were supposed to be replaced as part of the system’s second general overhaul which is supposed to be completed in 2016, it added.

As of November last year, only three out of MRT-3 72 train cars have been overhauled when DOTr terminated the contract of its previous maintenance provider. (Aerol John Pateña/PNA)

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