Whatever happened to LRT1-MRT link-up?

I read about the plan to extend LRT2 to Antipolo (Inquirer, 5/22/12). Now I wonder about what happened to the project to connect LRT1 and MRT.

Every day, passing Edsa on my way to Quezon City, I see the unfinished section of the LRT1-MRT link-up right in front of SM City North Edsa. What has kept the contractor from finishing the project? What is the contractor waiting for? This initial run through this LRT1-MRT link-up project was supposedly “inaugurated” when Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was still president.

We have heard not-so-pleasant rumors about the reasons the project has been delayed. The public has waited too long for the completion of this project. It would have made commuting via LRT1 and MRT around Metro Manila a pleasant and cheaper experience. A commuter wouldn’t have to transfer to another train to get to destinations currently served by either LRT1 or MRT.

The LRT1-MRT link-up would surely decongest Edsa, which is even now crawling with excess (therefore, almost empty) passenger buses. I know that the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, has a plan to take at least 80 percent of the buses now plying Edsa out of that major thoroughfare. This would ease traffic on Edsa. Such a move will also lessen pollution in the metropolis. Apparently, the benefits outweigh the cost.

So what is keeping the contractor from finishing the project, or is this one of the projects Arroyo initiated to justify the release of public funds allegedly for re-channeling to the private pockets of her cronies?

The Philippines is the region’s pioneer in mass transit after it built LRT1 in the 1980s, but  now the country can’t even connect its first two elevated railways. And I haven’t heard of any journalist asking this question. Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

—WALLY DY,

wally_dy23@yahoo.com