PHILIPPINES: President Rodrigo Duterte visited the newly completed Masinag station on July 1 to inaugurate a 4·2 km extension of Manila’s LRT Line 2 from Santolan. Revenue services will begin on July 5, from when there will be two weeks of free travel.
Serving the suburb of Antipolo in the east of the conurbation, the extension meets the existing Line 2 at Santolan, where passengers will initially be required to change trains to reach the city centre. As well as the terminus at Antipolo-Masinag, the extension has an intermediate station at Marikina-Pasig.
Although branded as an LRT line, Line 2 is built to heavy metro standards. Like most of the existing 14 km route, the Masinag extension is largely elevated. It was first proposed under the Metro Manila Urban Integration Study in 1999, but funding and formal government approval was not secured until 2012. Civil works began in June 2015.
Opening of the branch is expected to lift daily ridership on Line 2 from 240 000 to 320 000, and reduce travel times from Antipolo to the city centre to around 40 min from the current 3 h by bus or private vehicle on the city’s notoriously congested roads.
A three-station western extension of Line 2 from Recto to Pier 4 in the Capital District, which would include an interchange with commuter rail services at Tutuban, could open by the end of 2023.
