Manila Metro Rail Transit System

The Manila Metro Rail Transit System, popularly known as the MRT, Metrostar Express or Metrostar, is part of the metropolitan rail system in the Metro Manila area of the Philippines.

Now you're probably asking yourself why I'm doing a blog about something as common as public transportation. Especially something as common as a subway system. You may be wondering what's so special about this train system. Every major city in the world has one. What makes Manila's system worthy of a blog? Well, the only reason I'm writing a blog about it is because I've never been on it. I've been coming to the Philippines since 2001 and I've never, ever, taken their train. I just think this is odd since every other major city I've been to in the world I've always made the effort to take the train. So here I am, living in the Philippines, my new home turf, and I've never taken the train. Well, today, I've decided to fix this problem! I'm taking the train!

I bought my ticket from the teller. The route I chose will take me from the first station all the way to the end. That's a total of 13 stations and 16.95 km. How much did the ticket cost? A mere 15 peso (that's 13 cents CDN. Wow!) My travels start at Taft Avenue Station.

I noticed while I was waiting for the train that there is a dedicated section on the train for elderly, female, children or disabled passengers. I found out the dedicated area was implemented after several groping instances occurred on the packed trains during rush hour. Now women can be in their own section. I do wonder though if 'elderly' refers to older men as well. What's stopping a dirty old man from going into the woman's private section and start a little groping?

The train arrives and I get on.

Here's a picture of me overjoyed to be finally on the Manila train. The ride was smooth. It's a nice train system. I was happy to see me and my train whizzing by all the traffic on the street below. If you were to take this same route by car it would probably take you close to an hour and a half during normal insane Manila traffic conditions. How long did the train ride take?

I arrived at my final, North Avenue Station, stop and got out. I took this photo as I walked up the stairs to leave the station. I looked at my watch and noticed the ride took just under 30 minutes. Taking the train is definitely faster than by car. Once I reached the top of the stairs I noticed another train arriving in the direction I needed to go in order to get back to Taft Avenue. I ran down and hopped onto that train.

Here's a picture of me on my way back. It's not the best photo of me but the only reason I'm including it in this blog is because of all the people behind me. Look how they're looking at me. Isn't it disturbing? It's almost like they're never seen a Canadian guy on their train system before. Or maybe, just maybe, I've been oblivious to the stares all this time. Maybe people are always looking at me this way? Could it be possible, I've just never noticed this before? So disturbing... I feel a little paranoid. First the cocks are staring at me now the Filipinos. It's enough to make a poor Canadian guy go buggy.

When I finally arrived back at Taft Avenue Station I discovered I was able to leave without paying for the return trip. Since I never left the station at North Avenue Station my ticket still worked. That's 13 cents CDN for a roundtrip train ticket. So cheap!