The Department of Transportation (DOTr) will begin the privatization of Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) next year, with bidding for the ₱103.6-billion concession targeted for June or July 2027 and the turnover of operations to the winning bidder set for October.
MRT-3 will be offered to the private sector as a standalone project. The DOTr dropped an earlier plan to bundle the MRT-3 contract with the Light Rail Transit Line 2 (LRT-2), which in 2025 was lined up for privatization together with MRT-3.
The privatization aims to improve the line’s service reliability and capacity. The winning operator will be required to raise reliability, improve fleet availability and reduce waiting times.
MRT-3 operations reverted to the government after the build-lease-transfer agreement with the Sobrepeña-led Metro Rail Transit Corp. expired in July 2025.
MRT-3 serves more than 388,000 commuters daily through 13 stations along EDSA. It runs along a single 16.9-kilometer continuous corridor connecting Quezon City in the north and Pasay City in the south. The line joins LRT-2 at Araneta Center-Cubao station and LRT-1 through a covered walkway at Taft Avenue/EDSA station.
A rehabilitation program completed in 2025 restored train operating speeds to 60 kilometers per hour and brought peak-hour waiting times down to about 3.5 minutes.
Separately, the DOTr is working to finish bidding for the ₱229-billion concession of the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) by mid-2027. The NSCR project costs ₱873.6 billion, is co-funded by Japan, and will run 147 kilometers between Clark International Airport in Pampanga and Calamba, Laguna.
