The Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) is a public transport operator that is responsible for the construction, operation, maintenance and/or lease of Manila Light Rail Transit System in the Philippines. It is organized as a government-owned and controlled corporation under the Department of Transportation (DOTr) as an attached agency.

The results of a fourteen-month study conducted between 1976 and 1977 by Freeman Fox and Associates suggested a street-level light rail line in Manila. These proposals were revised by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, later the Department of Transportation (DOTr), to an elevated system in order to avoid building in the city's many intersections.^[2]

On July 12, 1980, President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos created the Light Rail Transit Authority through Executive Order No. 603,^[3] and assigned First Lady and Governor of Metro Manila Imelda Marcos as its chairman. While the LRTA confined its roles to policy making, fare regulation, and future planning, LRT Line 1's operations were assigned to Meralco Transit Organization (Metro, Inc.), a sister company of Meralco. The line came to be referred to as Metrorail.^[4]

Construction of Line 1 began in September 1981. The section from Baclaran to Central Terminal was opened on December 1, 1984, with all remaining stations opening on May 12, 1985.^[5]

On August 1, 2000, LRTA assumed the operational responsibility after employees of METRO, Inc. hosted a wildcat strike that paralyzed the line's operations from July 25 to August 2, 2000.^[4]

With Japan's ODA amounting to 75 billion yen in total, the construction of Line 2 began in 1996, and the first section of the line, from Santolan to Araneta Center-Cubao, was opened on April 5, 2003.^[5] The remaining stations opened exactly a year later, except for Recto station which opened on October 29, 2004.^[6]

In January 2017, LRTA Administrator Gen. Reynaldo I. Berroya (Ret.) announced the plan to establish a railway school in the country to improve the technical skills of LRTA employees and serve as a training ground for them. In May 2018, LRTA launched the first-ever train simulator manufactured by Lander Simulations and Training Solutions of Spain.^[7]

Notes

The Board of Directors is composed of eight ex-officio cabinet members namely the Secretary of the DOTr as Chairman, the respective Secretaries of the DPWH, DBM, DOF and NEDA, the Chairman of the MMDA and the LTFRB and the Administrator of the LRTA and one representative from the private sector.

The Board is tasked to issue, prescribe, and adopt policies, programs, plans, standards, guidelines, procedures, rules, and regulations for implementation, enforcement, and application by the LRTA Management. The Board also convenes to resolve operations-related issues and concerns and other matters requiring immediate attention and resolution.

• Sec. Jaime Bautista – Chairman of the Board / Department of Transportation
• Atty. Hernando T. Cabrera - Administrator - LRTA^[1]
• Sec. Benjamin Diokno – Department of Finance
• Sec. Amenah Pangadaman – Department of Budget and Management
• Chairman Romando Artes – Metro Manila Development Authority
• Sec. Manuel Bonoan – Department of Public Works and Highways
• Chairman Cheloy Grafil – Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board
• SEP Sec. Arsenio Balisacan – National Economic and Development Authority
• Atty. Dimapuno R. Datu – Private Sector

• Manila Light Rail Transit System