It would be my first ranting here at my new blog. It is also the first of the series for how to survive the mass rail transport here in Manila, the capital of the Philippine Islands. Well, what’s the ranting all about? Pathetic maintenance of course.
In 2003, it was my first time riding the new LRT Megatren Line 2 which spans from Manila’s Recto to Pasig’s suburbian Santolan, passing through San Juan and the ever busy business hub of Cubao in Quezon City. It was a relief from the cramped MRT of EDSA as it boasts wider and more comfortable trains. Enough to contain the students (the main market) of U-Belt and other commuters as well.
Boasting modern facilities, they’ve introduced finally (even though MRT planned it first) the vending machine for tickets. More like your favorite softdrinks vendo machine but issues tickets. A relief for the long queues and manpower for LRT. This is the most convenient way (so far) for issuing tickets for the said mass transit. But the first problem though was it was only accepting barya (coins) to purchase tickets. Worse, if your P20 or P50 bills are dilapidated, then like any other vendo machine, it will just spit it out…Kelangan mong magpapalit ng barya sa Passenger Assistance Office booth.Just a tip: If you are to give P50 to purchase ticket into vendo machines, the change may be in denominations of P5 or the heavier P1! Talk about public slot machines!
But because of the growing number of commuters using the new train line, the vendo machines are of pose of high maintenance. Some have broken down and was moved to a corner, not to be used. Other vendo machines lost their bills receiver. So expect that there are vendo machines that will only accept coins! There are even stations that all vendo machines doesn’t accept bills! What an inconvenience. And because of this, big stations such as Recto and Cubao already established man-powered ticket booths…talk about going back to the age of the dinosaurs! In fairness, they give you bills as for change.
I heard people say, “In the Philippines, is there a thing called maintenance in public property?” The statement raises doubts of maintaining the infrastructure work like it was spanking brand new. Like the vendo machines left in the cold corners of Cubao station, where do our taxes and fares go? I hope our taxes should serve the people of this growing metropolis. Calling LRTA, hope you fix the vendo machines in the LRT stations.
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