This is a three-part series of rants for today. Here goes part one…

I went to Manila today for a very important meeting. It was my first time to go the area so I decided to drive to Makati, park there then take the MRT then switch lines to get to Ermita. I think the last time I took the MRT was almost last year.

I grew up in a place where I didn’t have to ride trains or subways to get to school so forgive me if I get a bit harsh. You see, MRT is okay for me. But the LRT (I think it’s Line 1) is the bomb!

I was waiting at EDSA station and it was already after rush hour. A train stopped but didn’t let passengers embark. The next train came at around ten to fifteen minutes later. During that time the platform was getting filled and when the doors opened, people were pusing like hell (even those in uniforms). As I watched the coach get filled in a snap. I tried to stop from getting in but I couldn’t because people from behind were pushing.

After having no choice, I was in a sardine can. I can’t imagine what would happen if I farted. Also, it’s almost getting a buttfuck. In fact, getting off was a bigger problem. I had to swim out of the coach. Even if the train was dead full, people still tried to get on. The engineer explained that they’re trying to close this gap that they’re losing. We seriously need more trains.

This pissed me off a bit and the air conditioning was near useless. So I was hoping that this office that I’m going to has big comfortable chairs and luckily it did.

On the way back, it was less crowded but it felt like the train was going to derail. The tracks are straight but the coaches swayed left and right. Unlike the first train, the PA system was good enough to produce audible sound. It sounded like the engineer was talking in some weird martian language.

When the train at MRT arrived, the train had to be completely shut off for the engineer to move to the other side. It was weird. As the train got filled, it started to smell sour and bitter as there wasn’t air conditioning. Man, we are lagging behind so much.

Then there’s the ticketing. The ticketing! The process is still manual. What happened to theses similar to my sister’s where they used contactless card technologies (like RFID) for buses? I’m sure someone probably came up with a similar idea for our trains. Maybe they tried but not hard enough.

Oh wait, here’s some BS. Three years is not soon.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 14th, 2006 at 21.28.03 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.