JICA President Tanaka Akihiko braved the MRT-3 rush hour one recent Friday so that he could see for himself how its rehabilitated trains are performing.
Tanaka and his team boarded the MRT-3 from Taft Avenue Station and rode it up to Ayala Station, the MRT-3 management said on Facebook.
He got to see for himself what Filipino commuters experience, it said.
A loan from JICA earlier paved the way for the signing of a comprehensive Rehabilitation and Maintenance Agreement to improve the safety and service level of the MRT-3.
JICA hopes to contribute to the alleviation of serious traffic congestion as well as to mitigate air pollution in Metro Manila.
The MRT-3 management said the train speed at the railway has reached 60 kph from the previous 25 kph. The interval between train arrivals has also improved to 4 minutes from 10 minutes before the rehabilitation.
