North Avenue LRT Station

For the nearby MRT-3 station, see North Avenue MRT Station.
 North Avenue 
Manila Light Rail Transit System
Line(s) LRT Line 1
MRT-3
MRT-7
Other information
Status On hold[1]
Station code NA
Route map

North Avenue LRT Station also called Metro Manila Integrated Rail Terminal or Common Station,[2] is the proposed terminus of LRT Line 1. It is the planned interchange station that will connect LRT-1, MRT-3 and the terminus of the proposed MRT-7, which will run from North Avenue, Quezon City, to Araneta-Colinas, San Jose del Monte in Bulacan via Commonwealth Avenue and Quirino Highway.[3] The station is planned to be located in Barangay Santo Cristo (Bago Bantay) in Quezon City and is named after its location, which is at the corner of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) and North Avenue.[4]

The common alignment, which aims to link the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 to the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Lines 3 and 7, has been in limbo since the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) reviewed the project’s technical and financial components years back.[1]

Status

On June 2, 2011, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) called for bidders for the contract to build the station, which was estimated to cost PhP1.5 billion.[3] But on July 13 of that year, then-Secretary of Transportation and Communications Mar Roxas announced a review of the project and considering adding store space for lease. The government, by that time, had allotted PhP2 billion for its construction.[4]

Moreover, a BusinessWorld article dated July 22, 2012 cites that the government has shelved the project indefinitely due to the Philippine financial crisis in favor of demolition of the tracks and pillars. Secretary Roxas announced that the common station was "being studied by engineers because it is not really included in the original plan" of the MRT-3 and that problems may arise with regards to the trains' loop timing. He included that in the event that the station does not go through, the PhP200 million paid by SM Prime Holdings, Inc., the operator of SM City North EDSA and other SM Malls, to the Light Rail Transit Authority for naming rights may have to be returned.

However, at the start of the year 2013, Roxas' successor new Transportation and Communications secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya cites that the government has cancelled and abandoned the project indefinitely because the construction of the common station was supposed to be completed back in May 2010 during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo but disputes over cost, engineering issues and naming rights caused due to the halting of the project by Arroyo's successor President Benigno Aquino III on January 2, 2013. No plans of transfer the grand central station (Malvar or TriNoma Mall).

On January 9, 2013 cites that the government has filed for the candidacies for three sites of the common station linking three rapid transit systems for Metro Manila, DOTC is not keen on build the common station in front of the Annex Building of the SM City North EDSA Shopping Mall, adding that other potential locations are the TriNoma Mall and Malvar LRT Station in Caloocan City. Abaya said the agency is awaiting the results of a study that would determine the final location of the common station. He had said the original design near SM City North EDSA Annex was "ineffective and costly" because the rails of MRT Line 3 would have to be extended and trains would have to be added.[5]

DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said that SM would be able to keep the naming rights for the station, even if it is transferred near rival Ayala's TriNoma mall.[6]

This led to the change of the station’s location, which was initially set to be near SM City North EDSA, earning the ire of the group of the country’s largest mall operator SM Prime Holdings Inc., which paid an initial P200 million for the naming rights of the station.

Transportation officials have repeatedly said building the station near TriNoma is both economically and environmentally viable, as this would result in a lower cost and less urban blight.

SM Prime then brought its battle to the Supreme Court, which issued a stay order against the DOTC and the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) in June 2014, enjoining them to stop the transfer of the common alignment’s location.[1]

DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya also said in the previous interviews that they planned to build two common stations in order to resolve the location issue.

At a business forum held on August 12, 2016, Department of Transportation (now abbreviated as DOTr) Secretary Arthur Tugade said that all stakeholders namely Metro Pacific Corporation, Universal LRT of San Miguel Corporation, SM Prime Holdings, and Ayala Corporation had agreed in principle that the common station will be built in North Avenue between the Southeast end of SM North EDSA and North side of the Trinoma Mall.[7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "SM ready to end feud with Ayala".
  2. ↑ "LRT Line 1 North Extension Project". 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2011-04-27.
  3. 1 2 Paolo G., Montecillo (5 June 2011). "Bidders for LRT-MRT central station sought". Inquirer.net. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  4. 1 2 Montecillo, Paolo G. (13 July 2011). "DOTC reviews MRT-LRT central station project". Inquirer.net. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  5. ↑ "DOTC to choose among 3 possible sites for common train station".
  6. ↑ http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/04/22/14/mrt-lrt-common-station-be-located-trinoma
  7. ↑ http://business.inquirer.net/213450/common-railway-station-row-resolved

Coordinates: 14°39′21″N 121°1′41″E / 14.65583°N 121.02806°E / 14.65583; 121.02806

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