PH Congressmen Study-Visit the Bogotá BRT System

Congressman Cesar Sarmiento of Catanduanes (second from left), Congressman Edgar Mary Sarmiento of the 1st District of Samar (third from left) along with Ambassador Marichu Mauro observe how the TransMilenio Bus Rapid Transit System is managed from their main control system. (Brasilia PE photo)

BOGOTÁ 06 December 2018 —  P2P Buses, Carpooling Program, Yellow Lane, No Window Hours—these traffic schemes are being implemented by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on top of the existing Number Coding Policy and yet the traffic situation in EDSA continues to get worse by the day. Could there be any other way to address this problem that costs the Philippines at least ₱3.5 billion a day in losses and robs millions of Filipinos their time that they could otherwise spend in a more productive way? The city of Bogotá in Colombia has a suggestion.

Bogotá Mayor Enrique Peñalosa, who is no stranger to the Philippines having visited the country many times over, considers the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System as the only transport system that is applicable to Manila.

In a recent meeting with Ambassador to Brazil Marichu Mauro and Congressmen Cesar Sarmiento and Edgar Mary Sarmiento, Mayor Peñalosa was very frank and straightforward in his assessment that installing a BRT System in Manila is long overdue.

“I believe that the Philippines cannot function without Manila and Manila cannot function without an efficient transport system,” Mayor Peñalosa said. He was very emphatic about how citizens lose many precious hours of potential productivity while stuck in traffic such as the ones being experienced in Manila today.

The BRT System is a bus-based public transport system that functions like a rail system with dedicated roads and lanes for the buses. With this system, buses are more frequent and can transport more passengers quickly at a fraction of the cost that it takes to build and maintain rail systems.

"It's very effective," notes Ambassador Mauro who was able to experience Bogotá’s BRT system first hand during the study-visit that the Philippine Embassy in Brazil arranged for Congressmen Cesar Sarmiento and Edgar Sarmiento, the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson of the Transportation Committee of the House of Representatives, respectively.

During the visit, the Ambassador and two Congressmen were able to ride on the system and visited its main terminals, bus depots, and control centers. The delegation also visited Consortio Express, the biggest of the seven operators under TransMilenio, the city-owned governing body that oversees the bus operators running on the network, and was given a tour of its facility and witnessed the operations and its drivers’ training center.

However, Mayor Peñalosa emphasized that a strong political will is needed to execute such a project as it would involve reclaiming land to give priority to mass transport. National government support, especially financially, is also necessary in order to mount such a project.

Ambassador Mauro sees how this transport system could work in Manila, noting that Bogotá is like a sister city of Manila in many ways.

"The traffic situation is similar in Bogotá and Manila. The population, too, is almost similar. We have around 12 million inhabitants in Manila while in Bogota, there's about 10 million. The size of streets, the environment is the same," remarks Ambassador Mauro.

Mayor Peñalosa was the proponent of the BRT system in Bogotá during his first term in 1998 to 2000. Since the implementation of the TransMilenio BRT system in 2000, traffic situation in the city has improved and 69% of the population is serviced. Currently, Colombia is among the top Latin American countries with the most daily ridership totaling to at least 3 million per day. END

For more information, visit www.brasiliape.dfa.gov.ph / www.philembassybrasilia.org or https://www.facebook.com/PHEmbassyinBrazil

(from left) Ambassador Mauro, Congressman Edgar Mary Sarmiento of the 1st District of Samar and Congressman Cesar Sarmiento of Catanduanes meets with Bogota Mayor Bogotá Mayor Enrique Peñalosa to discuss the BRT System (Brasilia PE photo)