By Brian Jules Campued
The Metro Rail Transit-Line 3 (MRT-3) on Wednesday announced a 30% increase in its ridership in 2023, totalling to 129,030,158 rides in 2023.
This exceeded the 98,330,683 total ridership recorded in 2022.
Average daily ridership of the MRT-3 likewise saw a 30% influx with 357,198 passengers last year from 273,141 in 2022.
Notably, Aug. 22, 2023 registered the highest single-day ridership of some 450,298 individuals.
According to the MRT-3, the month of August also witnessed the highest overall ridership of 11.61 million rides.
It was closely followed by October, September, December, and March, which also reached over 11 million trips each month.
Transport Assistant Secretary for Railways Jorjette Aquino attributed the rise in ridership to a combination of factors such as the enhanced reliability, effective maintenance program, and the return of more passengers to on-site work.
“The continued effective maintenance and upkeep of MRT-3’s rehabilitated subsystems contributed to the improved reliability and efficiency of the rail line,” Aquino, who is also the MRT-3 officer-in-charge, added.
The rehabilitation projects carried out by the Japanese maintenance provider Sumitomo in December 2021 also improved the operating speed of the trains from 30 kilometers per hour (km/h) to the original 60 km/h.
According to Aquino, this resulted in a travel time of 30 to 45 minutes from North Avenue Station to Taft Avenue Station.
Meanwhile, a total of 220,706 passengers benefited from the MRT-3’s free rides in 2023. – cf