LRTA sees 2026 rider volume at 60 million, collections at P1.1 billion

THE Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), the operator of Light Rail Transit Line 2 (LRT-2) is projecting fare collections of P1.1 billion in 2026 on ridership of 60.62 million.

Administrator Hernando T. Cabrera disclosed the forecasts to BusinessWorld via Viber on Monday.

The LRTA said average daily ridership will be about 165,624 passengers. If the LRTA target for the year is realized, the total will exceed the pre-pandemic passenger count of 56.98 million in 2019.

The LRTA logged 53.21 million passengers in the first 11 months, up 9.51% from a year earlier.

Collections during that period amounted to P1.16 billion, down 0.85%.

LRTA’s target for 2025 is 57.15 million passengers and rail revenue of P1.38 billion.

It said that for 2025, LRTA estimates non-rail revenue to rise 4.5% to P138.05 million in 2025, which would beat the P132.09-million target.

Last year, the Department of Transportation (DoTr) said it is planning to launch the bidding process for the LRT-2 operations and maintenance contract within the first six months of 2026.

The DoTr is working with International Finance Corp. to privatize LRT-2, with a public-private partnership expected to increase ridership and extend the rail line. — Ashley Erika O. Jose