Monday, May 24, 2010

(Un)Special Boarding Area of the LRT Yellow Line

 If you have ridden the LRT before you must have noticed that the first door on the first coach is reserved for the senior citizens, pregnant women and people with kids in tow. It was done this way to avoid these "special" people to be squeezed like sardines along with the rest of the commuters of the LRT.

Last week, me and hubby attended a birthday party in UN Avenue. We had to ride the LRT from where we live to the venue. Going there was never a problem but the ride home was the ultimate. The special boarding area was packed with people and I do mean packed as in literally everyone is stepping on each others toes. I thought this area was meant to make the ride of the "special people" less difficult. The security guard on duty on that train still allowed people to get on even if it is obvious that there is no space to move anymore. That was the worst train ride I ever experienced!

Or so I thought. Today, I met with my mom and aunt at SM Manila and again had to ride the LRT to get there. It seems that they had revised the policy of the special boarding area and reserved the first door to senior citizens and the second door to pregnant women and those with kids. I told the LRT employee who informed me that it's a good thing they did something like this para hindi na siksikan. 

But, when I got on the train thru the second door. The people were mixed! Even the non-pregnant women were there so there was no difference at all with the volume of people. Siksikan pa din! It turned out that there was rope or whatsoever separating the commuters who got on thru the third door from the ones who got on thru the second door. 

I raised this issue with the security guard. I told him what's the use of allotting a separate area for the pregnant women if there is no division naman from the third door to the second door. Nonsense, di ba? Halo halo pa din ang mga tao and even the non-pregnant women who were seated won't even stand up to give their seats to the pregnant ones or to those with kids. It really did not help at all. Nasiksik pa din kaming mga pregnant women which shouldn't be the case given that that area was supposed to be a "Special Boarding Area".

Special boarding area that turned out to be UNspecial after all.


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