Pinoy.Urban.Blog

Taking a ride in the Metro Rail Transit could be such a pain in the neck for commuters especially during rush hours in the morning and in the afternoon. I was subjected to this ordeal for the past 3 months. Fortunately for me, my car pool has come back to work after her maternity leave. So, my MRT riding days is over. So, I’m posting these 5 useful tips to aid commuters in their daily struggle to get a ride in the MRT.

1.) Take the earliest MRT ride possible - if you are coming from both ends of the MRT (Taft and North Avenue), take the ride as early as you can. If you arrive by 7 a.m. and beyond, better take the bus and bear the heavy  traffic jam along EDSA.

2.) Ride from the farthest station - If you can avoid taking the ride from stations in between Taft and North Avenue, you have big chance of getting out of the train in one piece. This is applicable during rush hours (6:30 - 8:30 am, 5:30 - 6:30 pm)

3.) Buy SVT - I don’t understand why regular MRT commuters would not opt to buy the Stored Value Tickets (for a stored value of Php100). Those SVTs come in handy during rush hours. You don’t have to queue up to get your single ride ticket anymore. If you are a regular commuter, better buy it. If money is a problem, save a few hundred bucks from your salary to buy it. Once again, this SVT is of big help. And during your last ride before the value is consumed, you might even get lucky and have a free ride.

4.) Avoid bringing large bags/packages - It makes your struggle to get into the train more difficult. The less stuff you carry the better chance of getting into the jampacked trains.

5.) Grab a copy of LIBRE - It pays to be inform early in the morning. Those free newspaper inserts come in handy especially if your are travelling from North Edsa to Taft Avenue. Practice reading the newspaper while standing and using only one hand to flip through the pages.

If these tips are not enough and you still find it difficult to get a ride during rush hours. Forget about the MRT, take the bus instead.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 17th, 2006 at 3:15 pm and is filed under The Street Guide. 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.