Starting Tuesday, August 1, operations of the Light Rail Transit Lines 1 and 2 will be extended by 30 minutes as part of a government campaign to urge commuters to take the trains.
Melquiades Robles, Light Rail Transit Authority administrator, said the 30-minute extension means that both LRT lines will stay open until 11 p.m. The extension is in effect from Monday to Friday only.
"We hope that commuters who are used to take jeepney as a mode of transportation at this time of the night will instead take the LRT as we extend our operations. It is a cheaper and safer means of transportation," said Robles.
He said the 30-minute extension for Line 1 translates to an additional 20,000 passengers a day.
Line 1 system, from Monumento to Baclaran, can carry as much as 1,309,680 passengers per day or 38,520 persons per hour per direction.
From January to July this year, the ridership of Line 1 reached 76.73 million, which is 13 percent higher than the 67.49 million recorded in the same period last year.
For Line 2, from Santolan to Recto, the agency expects to carry an additional 3,166 passengers daily. From January to July, the system recorded 4.57 million passengers.
Robles said additional costs that will be incurred from extending the operations of Lines 1 and 2 will not be passed on to commuters.
"We do not expect to earn much from this. We will subsidize any cost that is related to the extension of our operations. There will be no fare hike as well," said Robles.