Torio, Joey Christle S.

Cirilos, John Paul

De Castro, Kurt
Morada, Pauline
Milay, Mau

I.

INTRODUCTION

A. Background
The Manila Metro Rail Transit System (MRT-3) is a transit system that runs for a length of
16.9 km along the north and south lanes of EDSA. It consists of 13 stations as depicted
below:

The MRT-3 was designed to hold 350,000 daily passengers, but had been carrying about
500,000 passengers for years which had hastened the wear and tear of the 17-year-old train
system. There are currently 20 available trains. The MRT-3 is open from 5:30 a.m. until
11:00 p.m. on weekdays, and 5:30 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. during weekends and holidays.

B. Problems
1. Overcapacity

As seen in the figure above, there are regular train schedules for weekdays and
weekends. However, the schedules are not being met due to overcapacity. As mentioned
earlier, an MRT-3 train was designed to hold 350,000 daily passengers, but it has been found
out that the MRT-3 passengers are significantly increasing every year: 400,000 daily
passengers have been reported last 2014 and 550,000 daily commuters in 2015 which are
way beyond the train capacity. Currently, the government aims to resolve the congestion by
boosting system capacity to over 800,000 daily passengers.

2. Long Lines During Peak Hours and Rush Hours

The image above shows the long lines in North Avenue station last March 9, 2016.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), NCRs population is at 11.9 million
as of July 2013, with Quezon City as the most populous with a population size making up 23.3
percent of the total regional population. It was followed by Manila (13.9 percent), Caloocan City
(12.6 percent), Pasig City (5.6 percent), Taguig City (5.4 percent) and Paraaque City (5.0
percent). The said cities are centers for work, education, malls and the like, and the majority of
the commuters which are employees and students (particularly in high school and college) take
the MRT-3 to prevent the traffic congestions most specially in EDSA.
The crowdedness of the MRT-3 during a typical weekday occurs at three specific time
periods: the morning rush hour (7:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.), lunch (11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.), and the
evening rush hour (5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.). The long lines result to a very slow inspection as well
as overcrowding of passengers at the station.

II.

KEY DEPENDENCIES AND CONSTRAINTS

There are key dependencies and constraints that are needed to be considered before the

implementation of this feasibility study. The feasibility study is dependent on the project managements
support on both the technological and financial aspects to be used prior to the execution. The span of
time allotted by the project management is also taken into consideration. Key Dependency Station
Capacity, as one of our opportunity areas, is heavily reliant on mathematical models that will serve as

guides to the reconstruction of MRT-3 stations. One such concept is Peak Minute Flow. According to
Station Capacity Assessment Guide of Network Rail (May 2011), Peak Minute Flow is the demand
passing through an element of a station in the busiest minute of the traffic day. Moreover, Network Rail
stated that whenever possible, this must be derived from observational survey data. Estimation can be
performed, if otherwise, but of course actual or near actual data is most feasible. Therefore, the project is
dependent on the basic elements of the mathematical models found in this proposal which is in turn
dependent of the skilful and accurate observation of the researchers and observers to be assigned.
The budget is the ultimate constraint in this feasibility study--the improvement of the current
online portal, the implementation of the OK cards as well as the establishment of reloading booths in the
nearest convenience stores would involve major investments. Another constraint in this study is the time
to deploy the proposed project. The deployment of the project components might add up to traffic, thus it
is vital to strategize about this matter. Strict compliance with timelines is a must.

III. Opportunity Areas discussion and Application of ITIL Practices

Ok Card
The Ok Card is based on the Octopus Card of Singapores MRT. This personal ticket idea eliminates the
falling in line process daily of our commuters. The Idea is somewhat derived from a cellular sim card that
is used in mobile phones. Personal ticket idea like the Ok Card works the same; each passenger can
have a personal ticket instead of stored value ticket with only 150 point credits.
With personal tickets, passengers can load up their ticket up to how much they are willing to pay in any
loading stations or convenience store. This can shorten long queues in ordering ticket from the MRT ticket
booths and give convenience to regular commuters. Personal ticket can also be used in all transit station
including stations in LRT1, LRT 2 and the Comet Jeepney which offers and gives service of a care free
transition from different transit lines and jeepneys. Comparing the personal to the stored value card
which, personal ticket, on the other hand, can increase its duration up to months. The customers can also
avail a suggested promo of one time payment where they can avail a board-all-you-can per month or a
SeasonPass derived and similarly to those of Singapores.

Online Portal
Since MRT Online Portal has insufficient data and cant provide the necessary information
needed by the public, we propose that the management will update the online portal. Applying the
concepts of HTML and XML, the new online portal will provide a detailed graphical representation of the
MRT railway system. It will display the current whether the congestion rate of passengers in each MRT

stations. Live feed section of the old MRT will be retained to provide the public visual information in each
station. Taking advantage of the new CCTV cameras, the online portal can now calculate the estimated
arrival time of the incoming trains. This implementation will ensure a consistent display of real-time
information to the public.
In the primary stage of development, MRT Online Portal prototypes will be coded and MRT
management will choose the well-formed output. This way, the current MRT Online Portal will remain
unaffected while the program is being created.

Train Management
A speedy inspection and better ticketing system will be useless if the passengers will compile and wait for
the passengers to arrive. To fully avail and cater the current passenger volume demand, the best train
capacity and headway combination was upgrading the train capacity to four vehicles and decreasing the
headway of the MRT line to 4 minutes during crush loading condition or 1.5 minutes when considering
comfort and safety, based on the study of Civil Engineering students of UP Diliman,
Implementing the process fully, MRT can still accommodate the demand volume of passengers and
prevent overstaying. This method will also make commuting faster since the passengers are being
transported faster due to the lesser time gap and more due to increase number of vehicles per train per
trip.
Also, MRT can be more effective and efficient by setting up a train schedule system that also alerts the
passenger on where and when the train will arrive and to sink as well to the passengers schedule.

Operations
First part of the operation is inspection of bags and what not of the passenger before letting them inside
the MRTs premises. Security guards use a stick and gloves to check and inspect bags. This outdated
procedure causes very long queue for passengers. By using door metal detectors, like the one being
used in shopping malls, checking for illegal baggage will be faster that will result to smoother flow of

passengers and shorter queues and deploying K9 dogs to the grounds can also help inspect, prevent,
and detect illegal narcotics and terroristic acts.
A recent accident happened where the train was derailed that injured 39 passengers. It can be observed
that the current train maintenance system of MRT is ineffective. Creating a system where it is recorded in
a database that can be accessed easily will drastically improve the maintenance of the trains. The system
receives data consisting of past maintenance records and reported issues. The system will help in
monitoring performance effectively and will determine the required maintenance earlier. Thus, it will help
lessen the time that the train are out of service and limit passenger inconvenience.

A. Service Design
For MRT to serve the huge need and demand of service, each station must allocate a sufficient number of
workforce to deliver good service needed for each passenger. A number of staff will depend according to
categorization of the station. These are the main and minor stations. Main Stations are North Ave,
Araneta Center-Cubao, Magallanes and Taft Avenue while the rest will be considered as minor stations.

Major Station
Role

# of Staff needed

Shift Schedule

Responsibility

Location

4:00am 12:00nn

Secure the whole

- Entrance/Exit Gates

12:00nn 8:00pm

station

- Ticket Gates

per shifts during

operating hours
Guard

10

8:00pm 4:00am
Cashier

- Platform

4:00am 1:30pm

Sell single journey

1:30pm 11:00pm

tickets, personal

-Ticket Booth

tickets and reload

personal tickets.
Passenger

Assistance

4:00am 1:30pm

Answer passengers

- Passenger Assistance

1:30pm 11:00pm

inquiries and solve

Office

level 1 incidents
Technician

4:00am 1:30pm

Fix malfunctioning

1:30pm 11:00pm

equipment

- Maintenance Office

Minor Station
Role

# of Staff available

Shift Schedule

Responsibility

Location

4:00am 12:00nn

Secure the whole

- Entrance/Exit Gates

12:00nn 8:00pm

station

- Ticket Gates

per shifts during

operating hours
Guard

8:00pm 4:00am
Cashier

- Platform

4:00am 1:30pm

Sell single journey

1:30pm 11:00pm

tickets, personal

-Ticket Booth

tickets and reload

personal tickets.
Passenger

Assistance

4:00am 1:30pm

Answer passengers

- Passenger

1:30pm 11:00pm

inquiries and solve

Assistance Office

level 1 incidents
Technician

4:00am 1:30pm

Fix malfunctioning

1:30pm 11:00pm

equipment

- Maintenance Office

Control Center
Role

# of Staff available

Shift Schedule

Responsibility

Location

4:00am 1:30pm

Fix and inspect train

-Trains

1:30pm 11:00pm

condition

-Train Garage

4:00am 1:30pm

Develop and Maintain

- Control Center

1:30pm 11:00pm

software

per shifts during

operating hours
Train

Mechanic
Developer

The guards, together with other personnel, will guide all the passengers to their designated entrances for
men and women. Assigned staff and personnel should make sure that the door metal detectors are
securely plugged and working properly. To make sure everyone is inspected properly, the staff or guards
should make sure that all the passengers enter the door metal detectors one by one to have proper
queues and avoid the machine from malfunctioning.
The door metal detectors should be working from the time the MRT opens until their closing time. Assume
any errors and malfunction occurs, there will be a frequent inspections of the machines that are needed to
do maintenance.

Station Category

Total number of Door Metal

Minimum percentage of uptime

Detector
Major

4-6

95%

Minor

95%

A sign will be available for the passengers to see that the personal tickets are available for purchase or for
reloading. The staff will be responsible in handling the transactions for the personal tickets. An ample
amount of personal tickets should be available for the passengers. The staff will only allow a minimum
reload of Php 30 for the personal tickets. The machine gate should accept the personal tickets.
The personal tickets should be available at the ticket counter during operating hours. Knowledgeable
staffs are available for assistance during cases that any machine gates are not accepting a passengers
personal ticket.
Since the personal ticket is a universal ticket for MRT, LRT1, LRT2 and Comet Jeepney, loading stations
will be available in most of the convenience store like 7-11 and Mini Stop or ULOAD Electronics loading
machine around Metro Manila. It is almost similar to the process when you load your sim cards where
consumer pay the loading stations the amount of load they want to add to their existing credit balance.
The train mechanics should securely attach one more vehicle to the train. The mechanics should make
sure that it works properly and safe for the passengers to use. The one vehicle that will be attached
should be applied to all available trains of MRT.
The attached vehicle should work together with the other vehicle of the train. Frequent inspections of the
vehicles are needed to do maintenance. Train mechanics are available during cases that the vehicle
might function improperly.

Capacity per vehicle: 394 passengers

Number of Vehicle

Total Capacity

Average headway

Availability

(minutes)
3

1,182

4.6

Normal hours

1,576

Peak hours

To enable proposed train maintenance system, MRT will hire developers to produce it. The developers will
train the staff and personnel on how to use the system so that they can operate it properly. MRT should
be able to provide the necessary applications, internet or other resources needed for the system to work
should be available for the staff to use.
The system should be working during any time especially during operating hours. The developers will be
the one doing the maintenance or updates for the system. They will also be in charge if the system stops
working or any bugs are found that may cause inconvenience of using the system.
The table below is a comparison between the old and the proposed system.
Scenario: There are 10,000 passengers who will be riding the MRT during rush hour. The ratio of female
to male passenger is 1:1. There are 2 designated lines per gender to submit their baggage for inspection.
Out of the 10,000 passengers, 60% are using stored value tickets, unfortunately half of them has already
exhausted their credits. And 2 ticket booths are only available.

Current Process
Process

# of passenger

Total Duration

Bag inspection

10,000

5 seconds / passenger

209 minutes

Buying of ticket

7,000

3 seconds / passenger

175 minutes

Boarding the train

10,000

1182

36 minutes

passenger/

minutes
Total time to serve all the passengers

Proposed Process

420 MINUTES

Process

# of passenger

Total Duration

Bag inspection

10,000

2 seconds / passenger

84 minutes

Buying of ticket

4,000

3 seconds / passenger

100 minutes

Boarding the train

10,000

1,576passenger/

28 minutes

minutes
Total time to serve all the passengers

212 MINUTES

*All values presented are just estimation based from observation & experience
This simple simulation shows that by applying the proposed systems can serve the passengers of MRT
by 98% faster. By transporting the passengers faster can prevent station overcrowding and faster
commuting which improves overall performance of the MRT.
B. Change Management
Type of Change

Conditions

Normal

Evaluate changes

Assess changes

Allocation of priorities

Coordination of change implementation

Authorizing the change

Review request for change

Low risk

Trigger to initiate request

Infrastructure to be in place

Activities/task are well known,

Standard

documented and proven

Emergency

Lack of time to handle problem in normal

handling

High Risk

Immediate solution needed

Proposal

Type of Change

Type Release

Description

1.

Normal

Phased Approach

Door Metal

Implemented first in main

Detectors

stations and if effective, will be

pushed through to minor stations

Before distribution, it is needed

to make sure that all tickets are

working, reloadable and accepted by
machine gates
2.

Personal Ticket Standard

Big Bang Approach

Ample amount of personal

tickets should be available per station

Training of staff will be

conducted before release of personal

tickets to have smoother transition
from previous operation
3.

Additional 1

Standard

Vehicle

Big Bang Approach

Train mechanics will attach the

vehicle before or after operating hours

Additional vehicle can only be

used during rush hour to prevent

overusing of the vehicle
4.

Train

Normal

Maintenance System

Automated Approach

Applying and testing is done

before fully implementing the system

Proper use and training for the

staff assigned is needed to be

efficient

A training of all the staffs must be conducted before the implementation periods. This training should be
able to help and develop the staffs ability to adjust and adapt to the improvement of the MRT so they
would be able to know the ins and outs of it. Also, this training should help them be effective and efficient
workers.
The door metal detectors and the train maintenance system undergo normal change. They are minor
changes that have low risk and impact. There is a need to evaluate and assess the changes. Allocations
of priorities are important like the proper number of staffing needed for the change to meet the needs of
the passengers. In this change, the risk is usually low. These activities are well known and proven. There
should also be coordination in the changes implemented to have smooth business flow operation. The
personal tickets and the additional vehicle to each train undergo standard change. In this change, the
change is usually low. These activities are well known and proven. All of these changes needs to be
completed upon implementation.

Door metal detectors will be released phased approach since the demand of passengers per station
varies from location. It will be implemented first in main stations and if effective, it will be pushed to the
minor stations.
Ample amount of personal tickets should be available per station for the staff to hand out to the
passengers. Before distribution of the personal tickets, it is to make sure that all the tickets are working,
reloadable and accepted by the machine gates.
Training of staff will be conducted before the release of any personal ticket in order to have a smoother
transition from the previous operation. The personal tickets will be released by big bang approach since
many passengers will avail the personal ticket for them to have less hassle while using the MRT.
1 more vehicle will be added to each train. The train mechanics will attach the vehicle after or before
operating hours. It will be tested thoroughly to make sure that it is safe for the passengers to use. The
additional vehicle can only be used during rush hour if the stations are starting to overcrowd to prevent
over using of the vehicles.
Big bang approach release will be used for the additional vehicle for the trains. Since the population of
passengers are many all trains need to have an additional vehicle.
The train maintenance system will be operated by a dedicated staff. Applying and testing of the system
should be done before fully implementing the system. Proper use and training for the staff of the system is
needed to have efficient maintenance of the trains.
Automated approach release will be used for the train maintenance system. It is important to check if the
prerequisites and co-requisites are in place before installing the new system. The automated processes
can ensure that the records are complete and accurate.

C. Incident Management
Incident Reports comes from 3 sources (From Station, Train and Control Center) which will be identified
and logged. The incidents received will be categorized according to Level. In Level 1, it takes 1-10

minutes to resolve. Level 2 takes 11-30 minutes and passengers are alarmed of the situation. Passengers
are also stopped from boarding the train. The last is Level 3 which takes 31 minutes or more to resolve.
Eventually, passengers are alarmed, train operation stops, passengers are stopped from entering station
and alighted out of the station. Investigation and diagnosis of the incident will follow and it will be
evaluated if theres a need to escalate to Level 2 or 3. If there are instances that it will escalate to other
levels it will return to event categorization until theres no need to escalate. Resolving of incident is next
and then it is closed.

III. CONTINUAL SERVICE IMPROVEMENT

Incident
Metric

Description

Target

Report

Explanation

Frequency
Percent of

Number of

Green 98%,

Monthly

If the target has

incidents

incident resolved

Yellow 97%-

been reached

resolved within

Closed with its

90%, Red 90%

then the incident

agreed SLA

SLA

below

management is
efficient but if not,
the management
should evaluate to
assess the root
cause of the
problem.

Total number of

Number of level 3

Less than 2

level 3 incident

incident

times

received

Every 4 Months

If there are less

than two level 3
incidents were
received, then the
change
implemented is
still effective and
efficient but if not
change
management and
incident

management
must take action.
Percent of

Number of

Less than 5%

Monthly

If less than 5 % of

unresolved

unresolved

the incidents were

incidents

incidents

unresolved, the
incident
management
would still be
considered as
effective but if not,
the management
should have an
evaluation and
assessment on
this.

Change and Release

Metric

Description

Target

Report

Explanation

Frequency
Percent

Improvement on

Green = >50%,

Monthly

If the target has

improvement of

time duration the

Yellow = < 30

been reached

time duration

passenger enters

%, Red = <

change is effective

passenger enters

the station to

10% below

and efficient but if

the station to

boarding of train

not, then it must

boarding of train

be reevaluated on
what could have
gone wrong to be
able to resolve and
restructure the
process.

Total number of

Additional number

Less than 4

Monthly

If there were less

additional staff

of staff needed to

than 4 staff

needed to deliver

deliver expected

needed to deliver

optimal service

improvement

the expected
improvement, the
change is efficient
but if not, proper
training of the staff
must be held.

Availability
Metric

Description

Target

Report

Explanation

Frequency
Percent of

Number of

Green 90%,

Monthly

If the target

functional Ok

functional Ok

Yellow 89%-

percentage has

Cards.

Cards.

80%, Red 79%

been reached

below

then the
availability
management is
efficient but if not,
the management
should assess the
root cause of the
incident.

Percent of

Percentage of

Green 90%,

Monthly

If the target

functional Metal

functional Metal

Yellow 89%-

percentage has

Detector.

Detector.

80%, Red 79%

been reached

below

then the
availability
management is
efficient but if not,
the management
should assess the
root cause of the
incident

Capacity
Metric

Description

Target

Report

Explanation

Frequency
The number of

The number of

Green 1% and

Monthly

Incidents

Incidents resulting

below, Yellow

and below

resulting from a

from a lack of

Between 1% -

incidents due to

lack of capacity

capacity or poor

5%, Red 5%

lack of

or poor

performance.

and above

performance, the

performance.

If there are 1%

service is efficient,
else, the
management
should review the
service

Percentage of

Number of

Green 1% and

Monthly

If there are 1%

Service being

Service being

below, Yellow

and below

Monitored

Monitored

Between 1% -

incidents due to

5%, Red 5%

lack of

and above

performance, the
service is efficient,
else, the
management
should review the
service

Sources:
http://www.gov.ph/services/mrt-3-information/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_Metro_Rail_Transit_System
http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2016/03/30/New-MRT-trains-fail-end-of-March-deadline.html
http://www.minibalita.com/reader/61319/1/Still-Long-MRT-Lines-Amidst-Promises-From-DOTC
%25E2%2580%2599s-Abaya
http://www.up.edu.ph/railways-and-train-commuters-in-ncr/

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