Some railways in Luzon are preparing to increase the number of passengers who will be allowed to board trains when Metro Manila is subjected to a more relaxed modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).
The capacity of public transport would be eased to 75 percent once the whole country is subjected to MGCQ, the simplest of the 4 quarantine protocols implemented by the government to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Philippine National Railways General Manager Junn Magno assured that physical distancing and health protocols will be followed.
He also said that the cleanliness of the train will not be compromised.
They will also try to maintain a record-free COVID-19 inside their trains.
“Not just PNR, pati lahat ng railway networks wala pang naba-back trace sa contact tracing na nate-trace ang transmission na nanggaling sa railways networks, so ‘yan record namin ngayon, mine-maintain namin ‘yan. Ngayon kung magre-reopen tayo, ‘yung policies namin para ipagpatuloy ‘yan i-optimize din namin, sisiguraduhin namin masu-sustain namin ‘yung record na ‘yan na walang backtrace na transmission with our railway networks,” said Magno.
The LRT-1 management ensures that health protocols will be followed and passengers will be allowed to enter the stations to comply with physical distancing.
Railways preparing in case Manila is placed under MGCQ
“Paano kami maghahanda para dito? Unang-una syempre we can assure them na ‘yung trains po namin ‘yung headway is between 3 and 4 minutes. Pangalawa po kinokontrol din namin ‘yung pagpasok ng crowd sa estasyon to make sure na ‘yung mga tao sa platform ay mga puwedeng sumakay sa parating na train,” said Jacqueline Gorospe, spokesperson for Light Rail Manila Corp.
It will be recalled that economic managers have appealed to place the entire country in MGCQ, including Metro Manila which has been GCQ for more than 6 months.
This, they said, is for the survival of businesses severely affected by the COVID-19 lockdowns, where many have closed or laid-off employees.
Earlier, some employers group called for the ease of transportation in Manila so that more employees can enter the workforce.
Some experts, however, called for a “slower” economic easing to prevent the surge in the COVID-19 case, especially since there have been recorded cases of more infectious UK variants in the Philippines.