The management of the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) has announced that they would not deploy ticket sellers at Light Rail Transit Line 2 (LRT-2) stations for now as a protective measure against coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
In an online forum, LRTA spokesperson, Atty. Hernando Cabrera, instead of ticket tellers, passengers could get tickets from the vending machines.
“Sa linya naman po, lately ho two weeks ago we started procedure na di na kami nagbebenta ng ticket using teller namin sa Line 2… wala ng teller na nagbebenta ng ticket,” said Cabrera.
(We started the procedure of not deploying ticket tellers in Line 2 two weeks ago.)
“Ang ginagamit na lang talaga natin ngayon ay ’yung mga ticket vending machine so lahat ng pasahero natin, doon na sila bibili ng ticket,” he added.
(The ticket vending machines are used for now. All of our passengers buy their tickets there.)
Cabrera clarified that ticket tellers were not removed from the job as they would continue to work in assisting passengers buying tickets from vending machines.
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Meanwhile, Cabrera also confirmed that LRTA has two office-based employees who tested positive for COVID-19 recently and are currently quarantined.
Even their retail or single journey tickets are also quarantined for 72 hours. They also disinfect them using ultraviolet light, before being returned to circulation.
“Kina-quarantine namin ‘yung single journey tickets, ‘yung tingi-tingi na ticket for 72 hours kasi ‘yun lang life span ng virus bago ire-encode at ibalik sa circulation,” he said.
(We quarantine our single journey tickets or the retail tickets for 72 hours because that is the life span of the virus before we re-encode and return them to circulation.)
To ensure that the protocols and physical distancing are correctly implemented inside the trains, Cabrera said at present only 160 passengers are allowed to board the LRT-2, far from its original capacity of 1,060.
Cabrera admitted that the LRTA had suffered a considerable loss due to the pandemic.
He said they are relying only on the financial assistance from the government to continue operating.
As of July 8, the country recorded a total of 50,359 cases, 1,314 deaths, and 12,588 recoveries.