TRB rejects the idea of toll holiday

Amidst calls to roll-back or suspend toll fees and fine the operators of South Luzon Express Way, the Toll Regulatory Board said, Tuesday that the traffic situation in one of the nation’s major expressways have “almost returned to normal” with the massive grid-lock event that went viral at the end of September supposedly not repeating itself the past few days.

Recent reports from commuters say traversing SLEX will take 3-4 hours

“"The usual traffic level na nai-experience ng ating motorista bago po magkaroon ng konstruksyon at masimulan itong project na ito is almost the same now. Halos bumalik na po sa normal traffic level," (The usual traffic level that our motorists experienced before the construction and start of this project is almost the same now. The normal traffic level has almost returned.)

This was according to Toll Regulatory board spokesperson, Julius Corpuz in a recent radio interview with a local news station.

Dubbed “Carmageddon”, the grid-lock situation was mostly blamed for the Skyway Extension project being built in association with the San Miguel Corp. consortium and the Skyway O&M Corporation. The phase of the project extends the current end of the elevated highway line in Alabang to Susana Heights/Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway.

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Laguna Representative Sol Aragones filed a resolution Monday to Reduce or Suspend Toll Fees

Completion of the project will serve to increase the capacity of the Skyway by 7,500 vehicles moving per hour easing travel time to and from Southern Luzon particularly from Metro Manila.

The total cost of the project is pegged at P10 Billion pesos and aims to soothe congestion around the Alabang and neighboring boroughs.

Laguna Representative, Sol Aragones filed a resolution Monday to temporarily suspend charging of toll-fees or reduce prices for 6 months to customers and patrons of SLEX to off-set the “severe inconvenience to the motorists”.

>>> More latest traffic updates right here!

Video released by SLEX Management show what the project would look like once completed

Representative Aragones added that the SLEX is used by a total of around 370,000 motorists of which approximately 50% use the elevated expressway, Skyway. TRB spokesperson Corpuz said, of the impending resolution.

"Titingnan natin kung anong implications... sapagkat marami rin tayong nakabinbin at ongoing projects na baka naman maapektuhan din," (We will look into the possible implications because we have many impending and ongoing project that may be affected.)

For more news and updates as this unfolds, stay tuned to Philkotse.com.