The Department of Transportation (DOTr) said MRT-3, LRT-1 and LRT-2 are offering free rides Monday, July 21, from 12 noon onwards as the Southwest monsoon or habagat continues to dump rains in swaths of the country and cause floods in Metro Manila.

Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon said the free rides was to ensure that the public can access safe transport amid the bad weather,

Weather bureau PAGASA said the habagat will bring more rains on Monday to Metro Manila, Ilocos Region, Benguet, Tarlac, Pampanga, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Oriental Mindoro. Intense rains can also be expected over Zambales, Bataan, and Occidental Mindoro, the weather agency said.

A low pressure area was also monitored at 3 a.m. about 1,140 kilometers east of Southeastern Luzon, the state weather bureau said.

The weather disturbance “has a medium potential of developing into a tropical depression within the next 24 hours,” PAGASA said.

Meanwhile, six more Dalian train sets are undergoing final testing and are expected to be operational in the next few weeks.

The remaining 39 out of the 48 Dalian train sets bought a decade ago are also expected to be operational in the next few months until next year.

Dizon said the train sets need to undergo safety checks and adjustments. These China-made train sets were not used previously due to incompatibility with the current MRT-3 system.

Once all 48 train sets are operational, the MRT-3 will be able to double its daily capacity to up to 700,000 to 800,000 from the current 400,000 to 500,000.

The Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) will be launching e-wallet and credit card payments.

Dizon said starting July 25, all MRT-3 station will have one turnstile accepting payments from e-wallets or banks, where users can simply tap their phone to pay for their train fare.

Another turnstile, meanwhile, will be allotted for payments from debit or credit card payments with chips.

Dizon, however, that senior citizens, persons with disability, and students who are entitled to ride discounts still have to buy single-journey tickets for now.

In May, Dizon said the DOTr was eyeing “cashless turnstiles” in line with the government plan to modernize public utilities.