The long weekend gave our kababayans a long respite from their monotonous routine in the city. The All Saints’ Day, or Undas, provided Filipinos precious time to visit the graves of their loved ones and meet close relatives in a reunion of sorts.
For those traveling to the provinces, the visit was memorable and worth the inconveniences they underwent during the trip. The holiday was all the break the Filipinos need from the hectic pace of urban living.
The traveling experience in last week’s long weekend, for sure, was not at all smooth sailing. One can imagine the queues and the rush to airports, seaports, bus terminals and expressways.
Commuters are used to and had expected the chaos at the embarkment stations. Authorities at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport had expected over 1.3 million passengers would pass through NAIA’s three terminals from October 27 to November 5, averaging about 135,000 to 140,000 passengers daily.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and other airport officials assured the public that they were ready to make travel safe, smooth and convenient for all passengers during last week’s weekend break. One official even vowed to deliver a world-class airport experience even during the busiest days of the year.
Making the traveling experience of Filipino commuters pleasant and efficient is a challenge, especially during Undas and other holidays, like the Lenten period and the Christmas season.
Our infrastructure lack in the transportation sector prevents us from delivering the comfort to Filipino commuters. Fortunately, the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has prioritized infrastructure through the government’s ‘Build Better More’ (BBM) program.
One key infrastructure project is the Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge (BCIB) that will provide a permanent road link between the provinces of Bataan and Cavite.
Spanning 32.15 kilometers across Manila Bay, the bridge will directly connect Barangay Alas-asin in Mariveles, Bataan to Barangay Timalan Concepcion in Naic, Cavite, reducing travel time from five hours to just 45 minutes.
The megastructure is expected to be completed by 2030 and hopes to redefine economic activity, regional mobility and the tourism potential in Bataan and across Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog.
I am optimistic that solutions to the traveling inconvenience of our commuters are forthcoming. The Metro Manila Subway Project (MMSP), North-South Commuter Railway System (NSCR), Edsa Busway modernization and MRT-7 are among these game changers that will improve the traveling experience of Filipinos.
These high-capacity infrastructure projects for the commuters will respond to the growing demand in the economy.
As I’ve written here in my previous columns, once the subway and Manila-Pampanga train system (NSCR) are completed, the four-hour commuting from Pampanga and Bulacan to Metro Manila and vice versa will be cut down to 30 minutes to one hour.
The MMSP, meanwhile, will provide relief to commuters by transporting them to their eventual embarkment point at much-reduced travel time. Set to become fully operational by the end of 2029, it spans 33 kilometers across eight local government units in Metro Manila, and will pass through three central business districts.
It is an expansive system that will be interconnected with LRT-1, MRT-3 and MRT-7 at the Common Station, LRT-2 at Anonas Station and a physical run through into the NSCR-EX at FTI and Bicutan Stations.
The P488.5-billion project is expected to serve around 370,000 passengers a day in its first year of full operations, with capacity to serve up to 1 million passengers a day in later years.
The NSCR project, on the other hand, aims to reduce travel time between Clark, Pampanga and Calamba, Laguna to just two hours and service over 800,000 passengers daily once operational.
A flagship project under the ‘Build Better More’ program, the NSCR is a mega railway network spanning 148 km., with 37 stations and 464 train cars and encompassing three segments-the PNR Clark Phase 1 (Tutuban-Malolos), PNR Clark Phase 2 (Malolos-Clark) and PNR Calamba (Solis-Calamba).
The mass transport project will run across 26 cities and municipalities in Central Luzon, the National Capital Region and Calabarzon. It is designed to serve over 800,000 passengers daily once it becomes fully operational.
These three major infrastructure projects will hopefully fix the woes of our commuters, especially during key holiday seasons. Families on provincial trips will have more quality time to spend after a shorter travel. They are world-class amenities that our commuters deserve.