Hail to Atty. Cabrera

Ang LRT at MRT. Bow!

So, I 've mentioned  here on my blog that I ride the MRT everyday to and from work.  Tuesdays and Thursdays, I ride the LRT after work to go to the university where I teach part-time.  Everyday I wish that the stations would not be so full of people and the trains are all cooperating so there won't be any delays.  Operations may halt from time to time and one's face is not too safe from being squished to oblivion as a regular occurence, but I still find that riding the LRT and MRT are convenient modes of transportation in Manila.

I remember the first time I rode the LRT, what was then used to enter the station was the very heavy tokens.   I was an excited girl, watching the view from the train's window. It was one of the most exciting rides of my life! My mother and I attended a party in Caloocan and we rode the LRT from P. Gil to Monumento. In the evening, after the party, I was nauseous and feverish in the train.  I started to have "polka dots" on my skin. Hah, german measles!

On Convenience

It's a good thing that the LRT/MRT management developed the Stored Value Tickets.  It's a prepaid card with a 100-peso value that one case use until the full amount is used up.  If the card has at least one peso remaining, that will still be good for one "bonus" ride. Convenient and a super saver, right?

I have a lot of extra SVTs for convenience

One time, the SVT that I bought from Line 2 wouldn't work at the Line 1. Upon checking, I still had P75 pesos on the card. The staff from the ticket station made me surrender my card for replacement; there was a glitch in the system, according to the guy, so my card couldn't be recognized by the computer.  I was to get my replacement (upon payment of P25 to get a new SVT since a new one is P100) at D. Jose, after five working days from that day, where I usually get on every TTH.

That's what I did for almost a month.  Surrender my receipt to the ticket booth, wait for the staff to check the records only to be told that while my request is there, there are no longer SVTs available.  "Ubos na po kapag ganitong oras," whoever is in the ticket booth would say.

So for three weeks, that what I was doing, until this morning when I tried to tweet Atty. Hernando T. Cabrera, LRT/MRT Spokesperson.   Here are our conversations:

I was surprised that he answered right away, since he was busy with another well-meaning passenger/twitter user at that time.  Here's what he said:

He would get back to me. I was expecting he would get back to me next week. Then...

If that's not efficient, snappy and uber nakakatuwa, then I don't know what to make of it! Imagine! I'm just a lowly passenger, being pissed at the system, and I was merely suggesting that they make more SVTs so the next time I pick my SVT, there would still be one left for me.  But no, he actually had my request tracked and he did something about it.  (And he didn't make me pay for P25 anymore!That's equal to two free rides! See, mababaw ang kaligayahan ko.)

A real Action Man.

Oh, I complained about the very loud buzzer.  Here's his reply.

 My love for LRT/MRT was bolstered because of Atty. Cabrera's efforts.

Ahhhhh, so there's my answer.  Passengers won't listen to the warning buzzer so it's set at high volume so that people wouldn't complain that they still try to get on/off the train because they didn't hear the warning buzzer.

Sad, I really have to cover my ears everytime the buzzer sounds.  I have pretty sensitive ears, you see.  Imagine hearing that, every stop, every LRT day... Hay. Even my kid complains, he likes the MRT but not the LRT because it's "maingay".

I can't have everything I wish for, right? But at least, I was able to confirm that thinking that the warning buzzer in the newer LRT trains is too loud is not just in my imagination.

Anyway, thank you Atty. Cabs! By the way, I love your profile picture on twitter. Pangarap kong magpapapicture sa riles ng tren, pero di kaya ng powers ko ang nakahiga.heheheh!

P.S.
Someone asked if I told Atty. Cabs that I was also a lawyer because that may have been the reason why he acted on my complaint.  I said, "Nopes, I didn't tell him. Tsaka nakakahiya, abogada ako tapos LRT/MRT Queen ako?"  I looked at his tweets first before I sent him my first message and he was really replying to all their queries. Ang saya no?