Manila Metro Rail Transit System

MRT3  MRT Line 3
North Avenue station platform area and train Tatra RT8D5
Overview
Type	Rapid transit / Light rail
System	Manila Metro Rail Transit System
Locale	Manila, Philippines
Termini	North Avenue Taft Avenue
Stations	13
Services	1
Daily ridership	450,000 (original capacity) 650,000 (2012-2013 record)
Website	www.mrt3.com, dotcmrt3.gov.ph
Operation
Opened	December 15, 1999
Owner	Metro Rail Transit Corporation
Operator(s)	Department of Transportation
Rolling stock	ČKD Tatra RT8D5 1st Generation LRV CNR Dalian 8MLB 2nd Generation LRV
Technical
Track length	16.9 km (10.5 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Minimum radius	370 metres (1,213.9108 ft) Mainline / 25 metres (82 ft) Depot
Electrification	750 V DC Overhead lines
Operating speed	40–60 km/h (25–37 mph)
Route map future interchange North Avenue  LRT1  Depot Quezon Avenue Kamuning Araneta Center–Cubao  LRT2  Santolan–Annapolis Quezon City Mandaluyong Ortigas Shaw Boulevard Boni Pasig River Mandaluyong Makati Guadalupe Buendia Ayala Magallanes  PNR  South Luzon Expressway Makati Pasay Taft Avenue  LRT1  This diagram:

The Manila Metro Rail Transit System, also known as the MRT Line 3, MRT-3, or Metrostar Express, is a rapid transit system of Metro Manila, Philippines, and is composed of a single line that runs along the north and south lanes of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA). Although it has the characteristics of light rail, such as with the type of rolling stock used, it is more akin to a rapid transit system owing to its total grade separation and high passenger throughput.

Envisioned in the 1970s as part of the Metropolitan Manila Strategic Mass Rail Transit Development Plan, the thirteen-station, 16.9-kilometer (10.5 mi) line was the second rapid transit line to be built in Metro Manila when it started full operations in 2000 under a 25-year concession agreement between its private owners and the Philippine government's Department of Transportation (DOTr).

The line is owned by the Metro Rail Transit Corporation (MRTC), a private company operating in partnership with the DOTr under a Build-Lease-Transfer agreement. Serving close to 550,000 passengers on a daily basis when MRTC's maintenance provider, Sumitomo Corp. of Japan, was handling the maintenance of the system, MRT-3 is the busiest among Metro Manila's three rapid transit lines, built with essential standards such as barrier-free access and the use of magnetic card tickets to better facilitate passenger access. Total ridership significantly exceeds its built maximum capacity of 350,000 passengers a day, with various solutions being proposed or implemented to alleviate chronic congestion in addition to the procurement of new rolling stock.

Since 2006, the system's private owners had been offering various capacity expansion proposals to the DOTC, but the DOTC never acted on these. Instead, in October 2012, the DOTC unilaterally took over the train maintenance and removed Sumitomo Corp., putting in its stead unqualified maintenance providers which led to a rapid deterioration of the MRT-3 system. In 2014, after the DOTC's handling of the line's maintenance for two years amid questions about the line's structural integrity owing to the DOTC's poor maintenance and the DOTC's pronouncements that the system in general was safe, experts from MTR HK were commissioned to review the system. MTR HK made the opinion that the rail system was compromised due to the DOTC's poor maintenance.