The ongoing work at the North Avenue Grand Central station gives one hope after years of being deprived of the lack of interconnectivity of our mass transit lines
If you thought last Monday’s traffic armageddon was worse enough traffic to experience on this first week of August, well…think again. Especially if you live in the southern part of Metro Manila and beyond.
The Department of Public Works and Highways has recently announced that the southbound portion of the Magallanes Interchange (the elevated road network at the intersection of EDSA and Osmeña Highway) will be closed to traffic due to the ongoing rehabilitation project of the said interchange.
If the problems of malfunctioning trains and the alleged corrupt practices of the sacked/resigned general manager of a metropolitan rail transit administering body were not enough woes to the metropolis’ mass transport system, well here comes another one that is surely to make mass transportation “more fun in Metro Manila.”
The issue at stake now is the building of a common station, which is intended to the common terminal for mass rail transit Lines 1 and 3, as well as that of the planned Line 7 which would run all the way to San Jose Del Monte in Bulacan. This would be the vital missing ingredient that was missing that would make at least the current mass transit loop of Lines 1 and 3 complete as at the moment, passengers are deprived of what would have been a convenient transfer between lines.
At the crux of this issue is a dispute as to where it would be located, something that may or may not involve some external forces at play. At stake is the welfare of millions of commuters who will benefit from the convenience or inconvenience of this common station, depending on where it will eventually be built.