LRT Line 1 (Metro Manila)


The Light Rail Transit Line 1 commonly referred to as LRT Line 1 or LRT-1 is a light metro line in Metro Manila, Philippines, operated by Light Rail Manila Corporation and owned by the Light Rail Transit Authority as part of the Manila Light Rail Transit System. Currently, the line consists of 20 stations and runs on of fully elevated route.
It travels in a general north–south direction from to, and then east–west from Monumento to. The line links the cities of Quezon City, Caloocan, Manila, Pasay, and Parañaque. Passengers may transfer to Line 2 at Doroteo Jose station and to Line 3 at EDSA station.
A 1977 study conducted by Freeman Fox and Associates suggested a street-level railway in Manila, but the government revised this recommendation to an elevated system. On July 12, 1980, President Ferdinand Marcos created the LRTA and construction of the line began the following year. With the opening of its first segment on December 1, 1984, it became the first rapid transit service in Southeast Asia.
Originally referred to as Metrorail and the Yellow Line, Line 1 was reclassified to be the Green Line in 2012. Future plans include an eight-station southbound extension into the province of Cavite by 2022, and an eventual extension to the North Avenue Grand Central Station, which will provide additional connections to MRT Line 3, MRT Line 7, and the Metro Manila Subway.

Route

Line 1 is predominantly aligned to the path of Taft Avenue, which was chosen largely due to its straight course. Later on, as Taft Avenue ends, it shifts to Rizal Avenue and Rizal Avenue Extension then turning right at EDSA or Circumferential Road 4 before ending at the corner of North and West Avenues and EDSA.

Stations

The line serves 20 stations along its route. A twenty-first station is yet to be constructed. Eight stations which are part of the Line 1 South Extension Project are also set to be constructed south of Baclaran.
A previously proposed station, station in Caloocan was proposed during the construction of the northern extension and became a bargaining object during its construction and has since been shelved by the current administration.

History

Planning and funding

In 1977, the results of a fourteen-month study conducted by Freeman Fox and Associates and funded by the World Bank recommended the construction of a light rail line in Manila. Following a review by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, later the Department of Transportation, the proposal was revised to an elevated railway in order to avoid building over the city's many intersections. This raised the project's cost from ₱1.5 billion to ₱2 billion. An alignment along Rizal and Taft avenues, which spanned from Monumento, Caloocan in the north to Baclaran, Pasay in the south, was selected because it followed a relatively straight path for most of its route. On July 12, 1980, President Ferdinand Marcos created the Light Rail Transit Authority and assigned First Lady and Governor of Metro Manila Imelda Marcos as its chairman. While the LRTA confined its roles to policy making, fare regulation, and future planning, the line's operations were assigned to Metro, Inc., a sister company of Meralco. The line came to be referred to as Metrorail.
The Belgian Government granted a ₱300 million soft and interest-free loan for the project's construction, with a repayment period of 30 years. Additional funding was later sourced from a ₱700 million loan, provided by a Belgian consortium consisting of ACEC, La Brugeoise et Nivelles, Tractionnel Engineering International, and Transurb Consult. The consortium also supplied the line's first light rail vehicles, power control, signalling, and telecommunications, as well as provided training and technical assistance. Designed as a public utility rather than a profit center, the line was expected to incur a deficit through 1993, but complete its repayments within a period of 20 years.

Construction and opening

The government-owned Construction Development Corporation of the Philippines was the project's sole contractor. In 1981, an economic recession and the government's inability to provide counterpart funds for civil works and right-of-way acquisition, which amounted to 60 percent of the project's total cost, led to a delay in construction. Work finally began in September of that year along Taft Avenue, between Epifanio de los Santos Avenue and Libertad Street. In order to make way for Carriedo station and a segment of tracks approaching the Pasig River, a department store and a classroom building owned by FEATI University were demolished. The southern section, between the Baclaran to United Nations stations, was inaugurated on September 11, 1984, and commercial operation along this section commenced the following December 1. The entire line subsequently became fully operational on May 13, 1985. During the first several years, two-car trains that could accommodate up to 748 passengers were utilized. This amounted to a capacity of 20,000 passengers per direction.
On October 12, 2014, Light Rail Manila Corporation, a joint venture company of Metro Pacific's Metro Pacific Light Rail Corporation, Ayala Corporation’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corporation, and the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure’s Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings PTE Ltd., signed a concession agreement with the DOTr and LRTA for the operation and maintenance of Line 1 and the construction of a PhP 65 billion extension project to Bacoor, Cavite. LRMC, in turn, contracted the operation and maintenance of the line for 20 years to RATP Dev under its subsidiary RATP Dev Transdev Asia, a joint venture between Transdev and RATP Dev. The 32-year concession started on September 12, 2015.
On May 29, 2020, the Japanese company Sumitomo Corp, which currently maintains the MRT Line 3, acquired a 34.9-percent stake of the Ayala-MPIC consortium.

Rolling stock

The line at various stages in its history has used different configurations of two-car, three-car, and four-car trainsets. The two-car trains are the original first-generation BN and ACEC trains. Most were transformed into three-car trains, although some two-car trains remain in service. The four-car trains are the more modern second-generation Hyundai Precision and Adtranz and third-generation Kinki Sharyo / Nippon Sharyo trains. There are 139 railway cars grouped into 40 trains serving the line: 63 of these are first-generation cars, 28 second-generation, and 48 third-generation. One train car was severely damaged in the Rizal Day bombings and was subsequently decommissioned. The maximum speed of these cars is, but currently run at a safe speed of.
The line's fleet is being modernized to cope with increasing numbers of passengers. In the initial phase of its capacity expansion program completed in 1999, the line's seven four-car second-generation trains were commissioned providing an increased train capacity of 1,350 passengers while the original two-car trains capable of holding 748 passengers were transformed into three-car trains with room for 1,122.
The acquisition marked the introduction of the first air-conditioned trains to the line. Earlier rolling stock was notorious for its lack of air conditioning, relying instead on forced-air roof ventilation for cooling. Unfortunately, this resulted in hot and stuffy rides. The problem was addressed more fully after a preparatory rehabilitation program completed in 2001 allowed the installation of air conditioners to the older rolling stock. By June 2004, all Yellow Line trains had air conditioning.
As part of the second phase of expansion on the Yellow Line, 12 new trains made in Japan by Kinki Sharyo and provided by the Manila Tren Consortium were shipped in the third quarter of 2006 and went into service in the first quarter of 2007. The new air-conditioned trains have boosted the capacity of the line from 27,000 to 40,000 passengers per hour per direction.
As of recent, the original trainsets are undergoing a body repaint and repair to address body issues and put it at par with its newer trains in terms of aesthetics. However, a majority of the second-generation trains are currently not operational due to various issues such as air-conditioning and propulsion issues, now a subject of an extensive rehabilitation program. The rehabilitation resulted in revived second generation units with new traction controllers and motors. 4 of the coaches in the third-generation trains that are currently out of service is the trainset that figured in the train collision in Roosevelt station.
LRMC has also built an in-house laboratory for production, manufacturing, fabrication and repair of train parts that are no longer available in the market.
Production of new rolling stock is awarded to Mitsubishi Corporation and manufacturing partner CAF, together with JICA, valued at P64.9 billion for 120 cars, or 30 train sets, to the line, in order to cover its Cavite Extension, and able to service more passengers. The train sets will be delivered from 2020 to 2022.
The Passenger Assist Railway Display System, a passenger information system powered by LCD screens installed near the ceiling of the train that shows news, advertisements, current train location, arrivals and station layouts, are already installed in the Trains, along with the Line 2 and the Line 3.

Ridership

The ridership of the line reaches from 300,000 passengers daily, to as much as 500,000 passengers daily due to an increased number of trains, as well as reduced waiting time of passengers from 5 minutes to as much as 2–3.5 minutes, having as much as 14.63 million passengers monthly, and aims to increase the number of passengers riding the line to 800,000 as the Cavite extension is set to be finished next year.

Plans

South Extension Phase 1 (Line 1 South Extension)

A south extension of Line 1, also known as the South Extension Project or the Cavite Extension Project in the Metro Manila Rail Plans has been proposed and would aim to serve the areas of Parañaque to Cavite. Such an extension would take Quirino Avenue then would travel on the side of Seaside Drive to the Coastal Road, and from there would travel down the side of Kabihasnan street to Quirino Avenue to its extension, General Emilio Aguinaldo Avenue from the Las Pinas-Bacoor Boundary of Zapote Bridge to Niog station. The extension would add 8 stations over some of new line and would be the third rail line extending outside the Metro Manila area.
An unsolicited bid to conduct this work from Canada's SNC-Lavalin was rejected by the Philippine government in 2005. In 2006, the government worked with advisers to conduct an open-market invitation to tender for the extension and for a 30-year concession to run the extended line. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo subsequently withdrew the project.
The Line 1 South Extension Project will consist of the following eight stations:
On May 4, 2017, the groundbreaking for the South Extension Project was held. DOTr secretary Arthur Tugade projected the early completion of the project to be by 2020.
The line would be extended from Parañaque southwards, connecting Las Piñas and Bacoor to the Mega Manila railway network. Civil works on the extension began on May 7, 2019 after the right-of-way was cleared. According to the latest update, the project is 47.77% complete as of July 2020. The five stations from Baclaran to Dr. Santos in Parañaque are targeted to be partially operational by fourth quarter of 2021 while the remaining two stations in Las Piñas and Niog in Bacoor, Cavite will be completed by 2022.

Incidents and accidents

Rizal Day bombings

On Rizal Day in the year 2000, a Yellow Line train exploded near Blumentritt station as part of a series of explosions in a terrorist attack known as the Rizal Day bombings. The attack on the line killed some 22 people and injured hundreds. Eight members of both Jemaah Islamiyah and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which include Hambal, Asia's most wanted man, and Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi, were charged with plotting and masterminding the attacks in 2003, some three years after the attacks. Three suspects were put on trial, with al-Ghozi receiving 17 years in prison due to the illegal possession of explosives. Al-Ghozi later died in a firefight after attempting to escape from prison. Car number 1037 is currently decommissioned, but there are plans to reconstruct it.