Senator Raffy Tulfo announced on Thursday that dedicated ticket booths for students using the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) will help ease their access to fare discounts, following numerous complaints about long lines and tedious verification procedures.
The proposal emerged as the Senate Committee on Public Services received multiple reports from students who expressed frustration with the current system, describing it as “time-consuming and inconvenient.”
“The goal of the student fare discount is to make transportation more accessible to learners—not to create new obstacles for them or for other commuters,” Tulfo stated in a news release.
Tulfo’s team conducted inspections on July 2 and spoke with students who shared their difficulties in availing of the discount. Some students reported being asked to present printed enrollment forms if their student IDs did not reflect the current school year, while others were required to manually write down their personal details, leading to long queues, especially during rush hours.
In response to these issues, the senator urged the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to establish exclusive booths or lanes for students, separate from those designated for senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and regular passengers.
He also advocated for a transition to digital verification to replace manual encoding, which would help reduce congestion at stations.
Furthermore, Tulfo supported expanding the discount coverage to include stored value or beep cards, rather than limiting it to single journey tickets. He recommended that beep card issuers increase production and broaden distribution through convenience stores and other commercial outlets, noting that the cards often run out of stock at stations by the afternoon.