Thousands of passengers availed of the start of the month-long free ride offered by the Metro Rail Transit -3 line rehabilitated by the Japanese government on Monday, an MRT-3 official said Tuesday.

Michael Capati, OIC general manager of MRT-3, said the first day of free rides of MRT-3 was successful with 281, 507 passengers.

"So, we are looking at around 300,000 to 400,000 passengers that will patronize us during this period," he said in the ''Laging Handa'' virtual public briefing.

Capati said if prices of oil products remain high before the end of April, the Department of Transportation and the MRT will discuss extending free ride in the MRT-3.

"We'll have to study that, the MRT and the DOTr management, if we can extend the free ride to help and provide subsidy for our passengers," he said.

Free rides in the MRT-3 line was announced by President Rodrigo Duterte during the inauguration of the completion of the rehabilitation of the 21-year old rail line by the Japanese government last week.

Financed by the Government of Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the MRT-3 rehabilitation project started in 2018 with Japanese contractors, Sumitomo Corporation and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI).

All MRT-3 facilities and equipment were renovated under the project, including replacement of worn out tracks, upgrading of signaling system, and overhaul of the Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs).

The rehabilitation increased the operating speed from 25kph to 60kph with 22 fully functioning LRVs. It is expected to benefit around 500,000 passengers daily.

Capati said the deployment of the first four-car trains is a big help in speeding up travel time of passengers in MRT-3.

"It helps a lot in the transportation of passengers because the four-car train can carry 1,576 passengers at any given time and we deployed two of which and eventually it will become, probably, by next year that will be our configuration," he said.

As of 8 pm on March 29, there were 19 three-car trains, one Dailian train and two four-car trains running for a total of 22 trains. The headway is four minutes. Robina Asido/ DMS