When one lives in his own fantasy world, his dreams tell the greater part of his reality.

I’ve been planning for so long on writing to the DOTC-MRT3 management, a list of my personal suggestions for improving their services and performance, but I always either forget to do it as I keep my list in my phone or just procrastinate as I want my list to be perfect, with all the fancy 3D image renders I have planned to add.

But since I have the time today, and also possibly, since I have been inspired by my blogger sister, I will blog about it, right here, right now.

Some of these suggestions are specific for each station where I get on or off, especially.

Ever notice the constructed ad placements at the middle of the walkway across the Northbound and Southbound platforms, just beneath the North Avenue Station? I think these were constructed 2 years ago or so, so that the management could get additional revenues from ads. But sadly, they were never really used. They take up (although, little) space and they don’t look tidy, at all.

• SUGGESTION #1: Either use these ad placements for stuff, like flyers, instead of having people give away flyers and people unnecessarily throw them away just about anywhere, OR just take them out, permanently.

I have always wondered what the huge METROPASS booths, aside from selling prepaid cards or promoting cancer by selling cigarette packs, were for. I have only seen on few accounts, when sales people are actually stationed there. And when they are, they aren’t actually doing anything. These booths just take up too much space, especially on stations that get a lot of passengers (like North Avenue Station) or stations that have smaller areas (Buendia Station). Aside from these METROPASS booths, other booths or stands also take up unnecessary spaces.

• SUGGESTION #2: Permanently remove the METROPASS booths and put them inside the nearby malls instead, because I have never actually seen trade between a METROPASS booth and a customer. It might just be my timing but regardless, the booth just takes up too much space, especially the METROPASS booth at the Southbound area of the North Avenue Station. And I’m a hater. The METROPASS booth at the Southbound area of the Guadalupe Station could also be replaced by another ticket booth instead.
• SUGGESTION #3: Strategically move and place the other booths in areas, such as unoccupied mall areas, or at the corners of staircases (applicable to MRT stations that have spacey staircases), wherein people queuing up at the entrance wouldn’t be hassled by all of these booths and stands blocking their way.

Remember what we learned at school? Always KEEP RIGHT. Even when there’s no one using the LEFT SIDE, always use the RIGHT SIDE, when going up or down the stairs. Always, as in, always keep right. It’s a simple discipline, really. And it would help greatly in keeping not just one place, but the whole country or the world, become systematic and orderly.

• SUGGESTION #4: Either enforce the KEEP RIGHT RULE in all MRT stations, when going up or down the stairs, when using the escalator or elevators, or when entering or exiting a train; or paint a direction arrow on stairs to visually aid everyone which direction is which. Although this rule is elementary, people tend to want to have some sorts of visual aids to always keep them in the right track.
• SUGGESTION #5: For North Avenue and Taft Avenue Stations: I suggest that the stairs have 3 lines going up/ 1 line going down for the Southbound of North Avenue Station and the Northbound of Taft Avenue Station; and 1 line going up/3 lines going down for the Northbound of North Avenue Station and the Southbound of Taft Avenue Station. For the other stations, enforce having 2 lines going up and 2 lines going down the flight of stairs.

Getting annoyed when the guards stop the queue of people from entering the platform? We do know that the platform gets full of people easily especially when there are defective trains and when the trains skip to the next stations. But, really, do we know?

• SUGGESTION #6: Put up a TV screen on the stairs wherein the guards stop the queues. This will help the commuters understand why the guards need to stop the people from coming in. This will also help the guards to voluntarily stop the queue of people whenever the platform becomes full unexpectedly.

I hate it when the guards “inspect” the bags. Do they really inspect the bags with their magical all-seeing wands, which they put inside our bags briefly without even looking hard enough? I know it would be a hassle to the lot of people queued up for the bag inspection if the guards would thoroughly inspect each of our the bags; but it would also be a risk to the lot of people if some genius of a terrorist found a way to cheat the bag inspection, which I know how to do. Good thing I’m just a genius and not the other.

• SUGGESTION #7: Invest on the x-ray machines we see on airports and use these in MRT stations.
• SUGGESTION #8: Move the inspection from the top of the stairs before the platform entrances to the start of the stairs before the stations. Why? Because if I were a genius of a terrorist, I would deploy a bomb somewhere near the MRT station without having to go through the inspection.

I loved the new move the MMDA made regarding fining people who throw trash or spit just about anywhere. I would also love it if DOTC enforced this rule and system in their areas of responsibility as well.

• SUGGESTION #9: Enforce that anybody throwing trash (paper, newspaper, candy wrapper, etc) who are caught by MRT officials, guards, janitors or even commuters alike may be fined by the MRT management. A ticket is issued and a record of such malicious act will be documented, so that the person who violated the rule, if caught in numerous occasions of violating the same simple rule of not throwing trash or not spitting in appropriate places again and again, be banned from using the facilities for a length of time up until maybe, forever.
• SUGGESTION #10: Put up trash bins that have segregation schemes (paper, plastic, and/or spit), at least 4 per station. Assuming that food and drinks are strictly not allowed in MRT stations, there will be no trash bins for food and drinks.
• SUGGESTION #11: Enforce that a single person may only take one newspaper. Or 1 newspaper per ticket bought. Do I really have to explain this? I am actually thinking of sending INQUIRER a separate suggestion that they do not print as many LIBRE newspaper copies as most of these copies are just wasted: thrown away. And what’s the deal of having one person getting more copies for himself, and then not leaving anything for the other commuters who would want to read the news as well? And what about the trees? Isn’t there anybody else concerned about the trees?

I hate it when you know you were the first person on the platform yet the people who came next to you suddenly is squeezing into entering the train. And then you are left behind, knowing you should have been on the train if people were just courteous enough to accept that you were there first and you should be the one to ride the train before anyone else.

• SUGGESTION #12: Enforce that there would be a queue upon entering the train. First come, first serve, or rather, first come, first ride. Based on my observation, in the Philippines, you can’t just easily enforce laws; you have to have a guide for people to accept these new ideas and rules. So to actually make people accept that a queue is needed, the MRT management should actually have a queue rail or whatever you call that–the one found in cinema ticket booths in malls like SM or TriNoma; the one that actually helps people find the line.

One of the best things ever invented was the classic, reloadable pay-phone cards. Wouldn’t it be great if the MRT management sold or provided reloadable cards as well?

• SUGGESTION #13: My idea is that the MRT management could sell personalized reloadable cards per person. This card can be reloaded through online, bank, cash, or text payments. One person may only have one card at a time, and such card will contain basic information about the person, which will later be useful in tracking wanted people or criminals, if they somehow used the MRT as mode of transportation. However, there is also a risk in having a personalized card. What if this card gets lost or stolen? Like postpaid SIM cards, these reloadable cards can be disconnected through a network center, which will make the card useless. This reloadable card is a good idea to lessen the hassle in buying single journey and/or stored value tickets every time your ticket is depleted.

So, that’s it for now, I guess. I’ll just update this post once in a while, if there are any more ideas and suggestions I can come up with.