Mass transport

Since Nov. 16, employees of The STAR living in northern Metro Manila have enjoyed easier travel to the office.

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

The reason: the start of operations of the Light Rail Transit-1 Cavite Extension Phase 1, which extended LRT services from the Redemptorist-Aseana station in Baclaran, Parañaque to Dr. Santos (Sucat) in the same city, with three stops in between: MIA Road, PITX and Ninoy Aquino Avenue. The Dr. Santos station is near our office building.

End-to-end travel time is down to 50 minutes – a huge improvement. And because the work schedules of most of us in the news media don't follow normal office hours, the employees don't run into the rush-hour crush of LRT passengers.

They like the new, clean coaches that are more spacious than the old ones. Beep cards that can be purchased and reloaded at LRT kiosks (plus through GCash, Maya, 7Eleven, Shopeepay and Uncle John, among others) also make it unnecessary for them to wait in long lines to buy tickets.

And then there's the fare. The one-way end-to-end trip from Fernando Poe Jr. (Roosevelt) station to Dr. Santos costs P45, and P43 with the stored value card.

The LRT ride has become so convenient that some employees are now leaving their cars at home.

A clean, safe, speedy, widely available and efficient mass transport system is the best answer to urban traffic congestion.

It's depressing to consider that it took ages before the LRT reached Parañaque, and that Thailand beat us by two decades in having its first subway, initially in its capital Bangkok. But looking on the bright side, at least we're starting to see modern transport systems coming onstream in Metro Manila.

We have yet to see our first intermodal transport hub, which has been available for ages in the advanced economies. Such hubs are a boon not only for commuters but also for tourism.