MANILA — The EDSA Bus Carousel will no longer offer free bus rides starting January 1, 2023.

The Department of Transportation says that as much as they want to extend the free ride service, they have budgetary constraints.

The Department of Budget and Management removed the proposed P12 billion budget for the free rides in the National Expenditure Program for 2023 submitted to Congress.

Instead, the Transport agency was given P1.2 billion for the contracting service program.

The government pays around P10 million to P12 million daily to bus concessionaires to run 600 to 700 buses conveying about 400,000 passengers.

The Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board still needs to release a fare matrix for the EDSA Bus Carousel.

However, based on the previous rates charged by the said route, the fare is P13 for the first five kilometers, then an additional P2.20 for every succeeding kilometer.

The route is from Caloocan City to PITX in Parañaque City with 21 bus stops and the Tramo bus stop as the latest addition.

According to the Department of Transportation, the EDSA Carousel busway has reduced the two-to-three-hour travel time for commuters from Pasay to Caloocan to an hour and a half.

Bautista said that privatizing the EDSA Bus Carousel operations is on their wish list for 2023.

There are interested groups, according to Bautista, but none submitted a proposal.

"We’re preparing 'yung TOR. Gusto natin kung ipa-privatize, ito 'yung gagawin ng private sector na will conform to international standards," Transport Secretary Jaime Bautista said.

(We're preparing the TOR. If we want this to be privatized, it will be done by the private sector which will conform to international standards.)

Since 2020, the government has spent P551 million on the infrastructure of the EDSA busway.

The Duterte administration rolled out the EDSA Bus Carousel at the height of the pandemic in 2020.

• 24/7 na libreng sakay sa EDSA Carousel bus arangkada na