MRT3 prohibits commuters from speaking, answering calls inside trains

Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT3) announced Monday commuters are no longer allowed to speak and answer calls inside the trains.

MRT3, in an advisory, said the measure was to prevent coronavirus disease (COVID-19) among passengers.

“Upang maiwasan ang posibleng pagkalat at pagkahawa ng virus sa mga commuters, ipinagbabawal na ang pagsagot ng tawag sa cellphone ng mga pasahero at pagsasalita sa loob ng tren,” it said.

(To prevent the possible spread and transmission of the virus among commuters, answering calls and speaking inside the train is prohibited.)

MRT3 resumed its operations today, July 13, in a limited capacity after it was able to assemble enough workforce who are not infected with COVID-19.

Transportation Assistant Secretary Goddes Libiran earlier said MRT3 needs 1,308 personnel to resume operations at a minimum.

It dispatched 12 train sets, including 10 CKD train sets and 2 Dalian train sets. The first train left at 5:30 AM from the North Avenue station to the Taft Avenue station.

Contact tracing will strictly be implemented with passengers filling out health declaration forms before boarding riding the train.

Last week, Libiran said a total of 203 Metro Rail Transit-3 (MRT3) employees tested positive for COVID-19 after examining all of its 3,304 personnel.

Also read: LRT-2 suspends deployment of ticket sellers

On July 6, Undersecretary Timothy John Batan earlier announced MRT3 would stop operations from Tuesday, July 7, until July 11, for the rest of the staff to undergo the COVID-19 test.

“Gagawin po natin ‘yan dahil sa gusto po natin matapos ‘yung tinatawag natin na swab testing o RT-PCR testing ng lahat ng ating tauhan, lahat ng ating MRT3 personnel,” said the official.

(We will do that because we want to do what we call swab testing or RT-PCR testing of all our staff, all our personnel.)

Although some MRT3 employees tested positive of the virus before, it continued its operations since the infected are deployed in the train’s depot and had no contact with passengers.

But recently, Batan said, some MRT personnel assigned to several stations were also infected with the virus.

“However, itong late last week, nag-umpisa nitong Friday and Saturday ay nakapagtala tayo ng positive cases sa ilan nating mga stations,” he added.

(However, this late last week, beginning Friday and Saturday, we have recorded positive cases at some of our stations.)