UV Express, jeeps to hit Metro Manila streets next week

 UV EXPRESS vans and traditional jeepneys will return to the streets of Metro Manila next week, an official of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) on Friday said.   

In a radio interview, LTFRB chairman Martin Delgra III said beginning Monday (June 29), UV Express vans will ply 30 routes for its initial resumption of operation.

“As late as last night, 'yung technical team po natin tinitignan pa 'yung mga ruta (our technical team was still studying the routes). But we're looking at 30 routes, initially,” Delgra said.

While the LTFRB has yet to decide on how many routes and units of traditional jeepneys will return in Metro Manila, he said the iconic mode of public transportation will return within the same week as the UV Express.

“Pagkatapos maitalaga 'yung UV Express, on the same week din po, 'yung traditional jeepney (After the return of UV Express, traditional jeepneys will also return within the same week),” Delgra said.

The routes to be made available to jeepneys and the date of its return may be announced by Saturday or earlier, he said.

“Ngayong araw, at baka kung hindi makaya ngayong araw, baka sa bukas, malalaman natin 'yung mga ruta ng mga jeepney (Today, or possibly tomorrow, we’ll know the routes of jeepneys),” Delgra said.

He said the slow resumption of public transportation was in compliance with the “calibrated, gradual and partial” policy of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) which puts public health above the resumption of public transportation.

“Mina-manage natin 'yung pandemiang ito. And this is the very reason why hindi pwedeng biglaan 'yung pagbubukas ng ating pampublikong sasakyan (We are managing this pandemic. And this is the reason why we can’t suddenly resume public transportation),” Delgra said.

Meanwhile, he said more routes of modern jeepneys have opened on Friday, bringing the total routes of modern jeepneys at 38 since it returned to the streets of Metro Manila this week.

This, after route 10, or the Cubao-Doroteo Jose city bus route, opened on Wednesday which completes the 31 planned city bus routes of the LTFRB for the duration of the general community quarantine in the region.

On Thursday, the DOTr also announced that the four rail lines in Metro Manila—the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1), LRT-2, Metro Rail Transit Line 3, and the Philippine National Railways—have transported a total of 2.8 million passengers from June 1 to 21.

Aside from these modes of public transportation, taxis, transport network vehicle services, point-to-point buses, and tricycles (in some areas) have also resumed operations since June, with provincial buses remaining to be the only mode of public road transportation with no definite plan for resumption. (By Raymond Carl Dela Cruz)