LRT East Line to potentially grow in extension and budget

With the granting by the central government of the new land parcel southeast of the Border Gate Border Post for the construction of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) East Line, the line should grow in length and in budget, the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosário, admitted at the Legislative Assembly (AL).

Rosário’s acknowledgment that the line budget might undergo changes, as well as an extended construction time, came in response to an inquiry from lawmaker Leong Sun Iok in yesterday’s Q&A session.

Leong aired various concerns and questioned the government on several aspects of the transport plan including the operation of the LRT system and the possible extension of the East Line to reach the Qingmao Border Post, and some other aspects such as the connection between LRT and the buses and payment methods.

Before the reply, the Secretary praised Leong’s inquiry stating that it was a good and rare example of how an inquiry should be made.

On the topic of the LRT East Line, Rosário said he was not yet able to give concrete details of the plans since the granting of the land and sea areas by the central government only happened last week.

Still, he said the government was starting the procedures to amend the current project for the East Line.

According to Rosário, the Border Gate Station should be slightly relocated to become “as close as possible to the Port” and he did not exclude the possibility of the expansion of the line to reach the Qingmao Port or, alternatively, the creation of a pedestrian flyover system to link this Port to the Border Gate Station.

“We know that in other places, like in Hong Kong, where each [MTR] station has several exits and entries, we might opt for this solution too,” he said, adding, “We want the LRT to be the main public transport, [follow]ed by buses.”

He also confirmed that as soon as more LRT stations/lines open, the bus routes will be adjusted accordingly, which means that potentially, with the opening of the Seac Pai Van Line, there will be fewer buses stopping at these locations.

“Soon we will have a new tender for the flyover for the Avenida do Nordeste that will facilitate the connection to the new line and, in Taipa, we will also have a new project of the same kind that will link [Hotel] Altira to [Macau] Jockey Club,” Raimundo stated.

He said these projects would follow a similar style to the Taipa Central pedestrian overpass project that raises the pedestrian traffic from the Avenida de Guimarães and crosses Rua de Nam Keng, Rua de Coimbra, Rua de Seng Tou, Rua de Bragança and Rotunda do Estádio, with a connection to the Macau Stadium LRT station.

“We are finding ways to connect as much as possible several areas of the city [both residential and touristic] to the LRT lines. This is our goal,” the Secretary reaffirmed.

Seac Pai Van Line operation not to be directly awarded

One of the questions from lawmaker Leong concerns the operation of both the existing and the new lines of LRT with the lawmaker wanting to know how the government aims to grant the future operations.

On this topic, and without providing much detail, the Secretary left a promise that the Seac Pai Van Line, the next planned to open, will not be directly awarded, as happened to the Taipa Line, which was awarded without a tender to the MTR Company of Hong Kong.

The details are not fully defined but Rosário said that the most likely possibility will be the awarding of the operations via an invitational tender.

“[It] probably won’t be a full public tender but maybe we will opt for an invitational tender. It won’t be by direct awarding, I can assure you of that,” he said.

As for other aspects of the operations such as the discounts on combined use with buses and payment via QR Codes, Rosário said the government is working on those matters but it “won’t come that soon.”

He said there are many aspects that need to be changed including all the gates of the LRT system.

Several other lawmakers joined the debate with Ron Lam calling on the government to add convenience to the use of LRT and a better operation schedule, and Nick Lei calling for fare discounts for the use of LRT combined with buses.