Strong Republic Transit System

The Strong Republic Transit System is a project of the Office of the President designed to integrate the rail transport infrastructure already present in Metro Manila in the Philippines. It aims to provide a "reliable, seamless and integrated mass transit system that would be at par with international standards" through the unification of already-existing rail infrastructure under one transit system and fare structure.

The Manila Light Rail Transit System (LRT), the Manila Metro Rail Transit System (MRT) and the Philippine National Railways (PNR) Northrail and Southrail lines are covered by the SRTS project.

The project was launched by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on June 14, 2003.

Line names

Unlike the present-day LRT, MRT and PNR, whose separate systems all have different line names, the SRTS would unify the systems, rename current lines and code them by color for uniformity and ease of recall. The following line names have been adopted:

Although this line is not yet covered under the SRTS project in its current form, some have suggested that the proposed MRT-4, which would run from Manila to Quezon City, would be renamed the Red Line.

At present, only the LRT and MRT networks have adopted the new color-coding line scheme.

Links

The SRTS project also provides for seven "links", interchange stations where commuters would be able to seamlessly transfer from one line to the other. The following links have been adopted, with already existing links in italics.

Fare integration

The project also aims to unify fare systems on all networks through the use of contactless smart cards, similar to the Octopus card in Hong Kong and the EZ-Link card in Singapore.

At present, fare unification between the Yellow, Purple and Blue Lines has been achieved through the "Flash Pass", a special ticket consisting of a card and coupon, but fare unification with the PNR has not been achieved as of yet. Contactless smart cards were proposed and were nearly implemented on the Yellow, Purple and Blue Lines, but the French-backed project was eventually dropped.

ee also

*List of Strong Republic Transit System stations
*Manila Light Rail Transit System
*Manila Metro Rail Transit System
*Philippine National Railways

External links

* [http://www.lrta.gov.ph/srts_project.htm Description of the SRTS project]
* [http://www.rihspi.org Railways and Industrial Heritage Society of the Phils., Inc.]
* [http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=106774, www.abs-cbnnews, LRT-MRT loop construction to start in May]