Tomas okay with LRT if Cebu ‘won’t pay for it’
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he has no problems with President Rodrigo Duterte’s plan to build a Light Rail Transit (LRT) system in Cebu.
“Who am I to challenge the president? So long as we don’t have to pay for it,” the mayor said, though he cautioned that building the LRT is expensive.
Osmeña said the Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT 3) in Manila cost P8 billion a year to operate with only less than P3 billion a year in revenues.
He said he won’t be able to complain if the national government would be willing to subsidize P6 billion a year to push through with the LRT project. The mayor said this won’t stop the P10.6-billion Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in Cebu City.
He said the BRT can adjust to anything, even the presence of an LRT.
Osmeña said since the BRT consists of buses, it can easily adjust to untoward incidents like a block on the road; unlike LRTs that are fixed and stuck on the rails.
LRT also has a limited distribution since it can only accommodate the areas where the train will pass through.
Osmeña said this would only be good if the population is concentrated in that line.
Former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama said he favors adding the LRT in Cebu City so long as it doesn’t affect heritage sites.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
