MANILA, Philippines — The government admitted that trains serving passengers of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) line 1 during peak hours are scarce and that rehabilitating old and dilapidated coaches is needed to attend to commuter demands.

LRT Administration (LRTA) spokesperson Atty. Hernando Cabrera, in his Twitter account @attycabs, responded to a commuter complaining about scarce trips during peak hours, especially in the morning rush hour between 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Cabrera asked for the complainant’s understanding, saying LRT 1 trains deployed during peak hours are not enough to transport commuters comfortably.

“But the rehabilitation of the downed trains is ongoing. Rehabilitated ones will be used to augment the current fleet and help expand the train capacity during peak hours,” he said.

The rehabilitation of the first generation trains of LRT line 1 is part of the P1.062 billion safety, reliability, and capacity improvement program of the government for the 33-year-old mass transit line. LRT 1 runs from Baclaran in Pasay City to Roosevelt in Muñoz, Quezon City and serves close to 500,000 passengers daily.

The LRTA and the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) have allotted P150 million for the contract to rehabilitate LRT 1’s 21 dilapidated light rail vehicles.

“The car bodies of these 21 units have corroded and rusted out from the 14 years of use since they were last rehabilitated. The project will rehabilitate and refurbish these units,” the government said in a published invitation to bid for the project.

The opening of bids is set on Jan. 30 and the project implementation will run from March to February 2013.

Aside from the rehabilitation of LRT 1’s dilapidated train coaches, the government will also bid out the service contract to replace the line’s rail tracks, which have already flattened and thinned to 60 millimeter due to wear and tear.

“Because the rails have flattened out, the trains are losing the grip on the track because the wheels no longer fit snugly on the rails,” the advisory said.