[Metro] 5 and 5 Things About the MRT

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My move to Cubao has triggered a change in my daily travel routine - the need to use the MRT. You may or may not have noticed the increase in entries about Manila's main public transportation conveyance (at least symbolically) and after about a month of time using the "train" (quotation marks since it's not an actual train in the original sense of the term based on some critics), I've had my fair share of experiences.

It's not that I'm totally new to the MRT, mind you - it's just that now is the first time that I've come to riding the MRT pretty much daily since it's the fastest way between my condo in Cubao and my office in Makati. It's not that bad as a means of travel when you get down to it, although I have to admit I speak from the perspective of somehow who works at night, and thus I only deal with the train schedules (and accompanying human traffic) in reverse to the rest of the "normal" working world.

Now like many other geeks who manifest certain potentially obsessive compulsive behaviors, I kinda figured it would be nice and neat if I just talked about my MRT experiences in sets of five - five things that I love about the MRT and five things I hate about it. Continue on and see if we share the same opinions or not, hehe.

5 Things I Love About the MRT
The Current Fare Structure - When you compare the current rates to the initial rates when the MRT first started, things have certainly come a long way. Before the MRT was an amazing boon to commuters but certainly expensive when it boiled down to daily costs. Compared to the cost of taking the bus or even round-about jeepney-hopping, it was hard to adopt to the MRT in the beginning. The various tweaks to the rates over the years has made the conveyance a lot more accessible to more commuters.

Creative Wraparound Ads - Most forms of public transportation can't help but supplement their revenue with advertising, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. There have been some pretty creative ads placed in the MRT such as creative hand-strap attachments or things plastered on the floors of the station. My favorite ad variations remain to be the complete wraparounds for the cars themselves since there have been some pretty entertaining ones that have come out that usually simulate the riders. When they're not creative, at least they sort of act as tint to diffuse the heat of the sun, so that's still a good thing.

The Free Ride at the End of a Stored Value Ticket - Getting Stored Value tickets are always a smart idea since it means you line up a lot less at the counter. Even better, regardless of how little is left in the card, you burn off the "excess" as a free ride, so your ticket is always good to the last drop, in a manner of speaking.

Free Newspapers - The MRT has resulted in the creation of several simplified newspapers that are purely maintained by ad revenue, starting with the ever classic Libre. Sure, they're not very substantial and even tabloids probably cover more ground but it's a lot better than nothing plus the horoscopes tend to be pretty funny for the most part.

Speed - Of course the best thing about the MRT remains to be the speed in which one can travel across the city. Despite everything else that comes along with it, you just can't beat the trains when it comes to urgently needing to get from one end of EDSA to the other.


Those are the good things - so here are the not-so-good things.


5 Things I Hate About the MRT

People Who Cut In Line - I know, the queues are never very clear, but frankly there still needs to be some sense of order at the stations. However time and time again, there will be those people who choose not to form lines but instead just sort of stand beside you as you wait for the train, even though you're clearly standing on the appropriate yellow marker on the floor. Or they try their luck getting to the escalator. Or they cut in even at the initial bag check. Really, grow up people.

People Who Hoard the Wrist Straps - True, the number of wrist straps hanging from the bars are severely limited. But it doesn't make things better when you're already holding on to the vertical bar near the door and you pull one of the wrist straps closer to you so can grip both. Worse is when you see people holding on to two of the straps even though the train is clearly crowded and people are struggling to maintain their balance.

People Who Do Not Respect Women and the Elderly - I always feel guilty as heck about sitting down when the MRT is crowded. As much as possible I try to make sure any nearby women or people quickly approaching or are already past the senior citizen mark. And yet there are those who forget about the concepts of chivalry and respect and just sit down as they please. Worse are the cases when I see younger folks rushing to the seat in order to deny a much older woman. And don't even get me started on the folks who pretend to be asleep in order to hold onto their seat.

Surfing the MRT - When I have nothing to hold onto given (1) the sheer number of people in the train and (b) my lack of height, I end up trying to master the art of MRT-surfing, which means maintaining my balance in a moving train without holding onto something. Sure, when this happens the train tends to be really packed and thus it's not that much of an issue to fall - someone is bound to act as padding. Still, the experience is terribly uncomfortable and it usually leaves me with sore legs or something.

The Sheer Volume of People - Even though I work nights, I still get my fair share of crowded trains. You can tell that the MRT operators are always concerned with maximizing the number of passengers per train rather than adhering to a set schedule and prioritizing the regularity of trips at certain time intervals. If we either increased the number of trains or even just add a fourth car to each MRT trip, I'm sure it'll make such a difference to the human traffic situation and avoid the ridiculously large build-up of people we tend to see at stations like North Avenue, Cubao and Taft.


With the good and the bad all put together, taking the MRT everyday is a decent experience but definitely more of a necessary one than one I'd get into voluntarily. Still, it beats getting tuck inn EDSA traffic in some bus or taxi cab.

[Philippines] The Dearth of MRT Time Tables

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Recently, the MRT-3, otherwise known as the Metrostar Express, tried experimenting with expanding their operations window to a full 24-hour run in an effort to meet a presidential request to assist BPO employees and other graveyard workers with their daily commute. The anticipation around the event was pretty big in the call center industry and many people were looking forward to having a safer means of going to work despite the rather dangerous hours they have to operate around.

Of course when the 24/7 experiment started last June 1, it was met with heavy criticism and much confusion. Apparently the MRT operators only planned for 2 trains every hour starting at 11:00pm, this anyone visiting the station would have to wait around 30 or so minutes before a train comes along as compared to the much shorter wait during the day. A lot of people who were interviewed about their sentiments related to the "experiment" gave negative comments and of course the operators themselves noted that the revenue gained from the extra hours was not enough to cover their electricity costs alone.

While many feel this is a cop out of some sort and the entire experiment was wrong in the sense that there should have been more trains since people expect speed from light railway transit systems like this, but I think the problem is more fundamental than that. The real issue here is the lack of clear communication and information related to what this plan was around the implementation of the 24/7 operations scheme.

As helpful as the MRT is to city living, the biggest thing that has irked me about the transit service is the lack of schedules and time tables. I know, I know, obvious references to the supposed "Filipino Time" notion are bound to come into play here, but hear me out.

In other countries, any train / subway / railway service is able to publish expected schedules of trains arriving at stations. With this you can figure out which train you're trying to catch once you hit a particular station. Here, all MRT and LRT lines just publish the schedules of the first and last trains in terms of that particular station. Thus within that window, you have no guaranteed assurance of when the trains are going to arrive. Yehey! has published these schedules in an effort to make them more known while the actual Metrostar Express website emphasizes the number of trains expected per hour.

Why are we so afraid of committing to a schedule? Why do we continually buy into the notion that the Filipino cannot be expected to adhere to a time table? This is what I feel was a larger contributing factor to the "failure" of the MRT 24/7 experiment. Most people didn't know they were only planning to have 2 trains per hour and expected generally "normal" operations. Thus when the first few riders were shocked with the actual scheduling, this resulted in negative feedback, buzz quickly spreading by word of mouth or SMS and ultimately lower rider numbers. This is just factoring in the people who actually knew about the experiment. In my personal experience, a lot of folks didn't know about it until the day itself.

When are we going to learn? Instead we're just sticking to the norm, blaming the failure of the experiment on low rider numbers and thus justifying a change of plans. Now they're going to try experimenting with an extended run instead, citing barely anyone used the MRT between the hours of 01:00am and 04:00am.

They might have generated more riders had the public known in advance about the change in operations and with the expectations of when the trains would actually be there instead of just the start and end times. Knowledge of the precise schedules would have allowed commuters to arrive at the station closer to their expected transit time, thus reducing the amount of time spent loitering in the station and thus reducing the need for more stringent security coverage.

A time table is such a simple thing. Why can't we even manage that?

[Metro] Fundamental Traffic Discipline

Image via Wikipedia There are numerous sayings and jokes about the irrelevance of traffic laws in many cases. One has to admit that they remain to be some of the most prevalent forms of legal compliance that we are faced with day after day and yet also some of the rules that are most blatantly and commonly violated or broken.

Take jay-walking for example. The simple need to cross the streets at the pedestrian lanes alone and to follow the Walk / Don't Walk lights accordingly seem to be one of the biggest challenges we face as a race - and I'm referring to humankind as a whole, practically speaking and not just us Filipinos.

I've always striven to follow these laws, not so much because I have a big respect of the letter of the law but more because my geeky mind works in weird ways and I have often exhibited somewhat OCD tendencies time and time again.

Stop smirking, I can see you!

Anyway, more often than not I end up finding myself alone on the curb as everyone else darts across the street when the light is still clearly red and saying Don't Walk. Quite the conundrum, to say the least. Thus in these idle moments as I wait for the lights to change, I've spent a lot of time thinking about why I was alone on the sidewalk.

Traffic laws in all forms are usually some those treated as less than important than the big ones like the ones about murder, government corruption and tax evasion given their limited impact. While they're designed to ensure the safety of the population for the most part and to ensure the continuous flow of traffic in order to facilitate effective travel, many people feel they're smarter than that and don't need laws to protect them. Yes, they're pretty much of the believe that their wits and agility alone can help them avoid accidents.

It's partly arrogance, at least from my perspective, that pushes people to take risks by crossing the street when the lights aren't green yet or making U-turns with their cars where they shouldn't if only for their own convenience and their belief that nothing wrong will happen to them.

This kind of thinking when taken on a larger scale sort of speaks of why we're so bad with laws in general. We're constantly in a battle with our own laws trying to find ways around them for our on convenience, usually invoking limited impact or the scale of the crime versus the potential benefits as a possible justification. The challenge, of course, is that we don't exactly have a good track record either for seeing things on a larger scale in order to determine the full impact of our actions - this is why the creation and maintenance / evaluation of laws is something that we entrust to a large group of lawmakers instead of just select individuals.

Before we start questioning our government and pointing out what we think to be wrong, it helps to first make sure we ourselves are living the lives we expect of our officials. Even for things as "simple" and fundamental as traffic laws, it would certainly help to see that we can at least follow those decently enough.

Besides, I'm sick of being alone at the cross-walks.

[Environmentalism] The Role of Racing in These Times

Image via Wikipedia These days, one can't help think about the rising costs of petroleum-based products whether or not you own a car. The state of fuel prices naturally affects all aspects of life and hits us all where it hurts - our wallets. Our day-to-day expenses just this year alone have all gone up to some degree whether in terms of commuting fare, electricity prices, and of course even basic goods like food and essential services. It's certainly a painful world that we're living in, but one that was not totally unforeseen given our consumption of oil.

While global focus is being directed towards working on alternative fuel technologies, conservation efforts and even properly inflating your tires, but sometimes there are just those things that stare us in the face and make you wonder why we even bother.

Man, this is just me thinking out loud, okay? I know I'm so going to get flack for this, haha.

It's not that I have anything against this particular hobby / sport, but in period where everyone has gas prices on their mind, why do we still entertain the notion of professional racing? Yes, it's understandable that their fuel consumption is probably not going to be bigger than the entire US or even just the US military, perhaps, but sometimes acts like that still send messages. The entire motor sports world is dependent on high octane fuel and pretty much showcases it on international television for everyone to enjoy.

We know that every little bit counts, and I'm not sure how continually rewarding both the gasoline companies and the car-makers with this sport works with our global push towards trying to reduce fuel prices, or at the very least using fuel only when truly necessary. Imagine the kind of statement it would make to the world if certain racing groups like the F1 circuits suddenly announced a requirement for all vehicles to use bio-fuels in races starting in 2010? What if we discontinued certain circuits all together and moved towards further popularizing the solar-powered racing scene in order to continue to support environment efforts? That's what I mean when it comes to the statement or message the existence of these racing groups contribute to the world. It's not about the volume of fuel they consume but the purpose of this consumption they slap in our faces.

While the rest of the world is penny-pinching and trying to maximize fuel economy, we have folks with million dollar jobs just burning the fuel by going around in circles on a track, essentially just burning the gas to go nowhere meaningful. At this point, we can't escape our need for oil when it comes to mass transportation, shipping of goods, air travel and power generation. Aren't these better uses of our ever-diminishing supply of petroleum?

Whether it becomes a government-initiated policy or just a strong statement from the car-makers or race organizers, I just think it would mean a lot to everyone if the racers just stopped one day. Hopefully it'll be one day soon.

[Metro] The Paradox of the FX

Image via WikipediaGiven rising fuel and thus transportation costs as well, I've been trying to save a bit more by taking public transportation to work. It makes sense since I actually live pretty near the office and my taking cabs to and from work is more of a luxury, or a size of laziness to put it in more blunt terms. Regardless of the mode of transportation I choose - bus, jeepney or cab - I'm pretty much one ride away.

However there's one mode of public transportation that always amuses me - this being the "FX" as they're commonly called. You know what I'm referring to - the localized SUV of sorts that's locally branded as the Toyota Tamaraw FX, thus colloquially known as the FX for short. At one point or another we've probably taken one, and yet have you ever really thought about the nature of such vehicles?

I say this since technically speaking, the FX does not exist.

Don't get me wrong or think me mad - I know the vehicle exists and is out there. that much is definitely true. However from a government standpoint, the FX is not a recognized mode of public transportation. Their rates are not officially regulated by the government nor are they given the rights of the formal associations and such.

In most cases we know the FX drivers take on the guise of taxis - complete with official LTFRB sealed meters and all. They usually let the meters run pretty much forever and trek around the metropolis picking up passengers and dropping them off, much like buses and jeepneys. You know they're still not official given that the drivers do not permanently hang the little signs that indicate where they're headed - they have to carry these signs on their own and they flash them at would-be riders on the sidewalks as they slow down to cruising speeds, then quickly tuck the signs away when they've either picked up everyone possible or determined no one wants to ride.

I can only wonder why we continue to play this ridiculous game of make-believe. Everyone knows they're out there and a lot of people use them. I've seen local law enforcement use them, which becomes a silent nod to them as vehicles without the need to apprehend them as violating any laws out there. They already have more-or-less established routes and pick-up points and they have a loose agreement of rates and fares across the city. And yet they're not quite official vehicles.

I know the other "official" modes of public transportation don't quite appreciate them. They have the versatility of jeepneys in terms of size and ability to get into smaller side-streets. They're air-conditioned and thus have the somewhat comfort associated with taxis and buses. From a fare perspective they get to charge more than buses because of the convenience of their routes and probably bring in more than a standard taxi cab would because of the volume of passengers and the increased take from a higher aggregated flag-down fee, as it were, provided you add up what everyone pays for a trip.

Of course with them being unregulated, no one can determine if their rates are fair or equitable to the rights of the people. Their stopping points are not monitored or regulated and thus they tend to cause unneeded complications as they pick up and drop off passengers as they see fit. Plus who's to make statements on what is a "safe" load for them in terms of number of passengers and who's to ensure they meet safety standards of any kind? That's pretty much the conundrum right there.

On paper the FX continues to be non-existent from a government monitoring standpoint. However in reality it continues to be a thriving part of our mass transportation system and perhaps a piece that merits further scrutiny in the future.