Comfortable: Gone

It's almost six days already since they implemented the segregation scheme in MRT Line 3. While it has brought heaven to mainly women, it is slowly surpassing hell for the other people who take the train as well.

I'm sure the women who benefited a lot from this scheme couldn't relate because they have one, sometimes two or even three "cars" delegated to them. You could see the male populace turn green with envy as the first cars roll in and they see the wide-open space, then suddenly change to despair once the next cars roll by. This is heaven for women, heaven to the point that they could put up a disco ball in the middle and dance the night away due to the "emptiness" of these "cars" You would rarely see more than 15 women standing there inside.

A whole "car" can actually hold up to 70-90 passengers. But I just found out, that a car consists of three small "cars", so you can more or less triple that number. Since the first car is blocked off, these "lost" passengers now have to fight over the remaining ones. Since April 1, I've never gone home anymore where I could just walk in, have my bag checked, go down to the platform and ride the next train that comes by. Now, I have to wait 10-20 minutes just to get in the train (lines are snaking in the station), and wait another 20 minutes to luckily ride the train (yes, luckily). Before, this only happens during Mondays and Fridays as expected, but now, it happens everyday. I almost missed my meeting at home due to this last Tuesday, because I had to wait 5 trains after before I got a chance to ride one.

While I was riding the MRT earlier, one angrily commented that he'd rather take the bus now due to this change. It was hell earlier, with the aircon barely working, and the car crammed to its utmost capacity. If this trend continues, there could be a significant drop in the MRT ticket sales. Tempers were pretty high earlier, a lot of pushing and raised voices were said and done. And of course, there were quite a number of cases of missed stations because the door closed before the alighting passenger could make his way to the walls of people.

The other day, I heard about an angry passenger who had problems with his ticket. Apparently, he bought the ticket in the station he got in, had to line up for a long time and wait for a long time on the platform. Due to this, his ticket expired. MRT3 rules state that "Passengers must exit within 75 minutes (allowable stay) from the time of entry. Additional charge equivalent to the maximum fare shall be required for overstaying." I didn't know how it ended, but if a passenger is forced to pay this "violation fee" because of the effects of this new scheme, then that would not be right. It can be viewed as a scheme to extract more money from the passengers. It may be a rarity now, but who knows, there might be more cases like that in the future.

Use what is delegated.I believe that they are delegating too many cars for their consumption, but since they (MRT Peeps) do not want men mixing with women, maybe they should prevent women riding alone from riding in the other cars. That way, these women traveling alone do not waste the space delegated for them in the first car, and consume the space for the unlucky non-female, non-elderly, non-children, non-disabled passengers.

Rules differ from each station. The special cars are for the kids, elderly, disabled and women. Now, Homosexuals are debatable. Fathers with their kids sometimes can go in, sometimes cannot. Girlfriends with their boyfriends are sometimes allowed in, sometimes not. Will girls need to suffer because of their boyfriends, or will they need to separate for the duration of the train ride? Will families need to break up as well, or let women and their kids suffer the same crushing fate? And when are male elders old enough? Case in point, a man managed to ride in the women's car a station before him. When it arrived in Cubao, a police search was made in the first car, found him, and forced him out to the back of the long line.

Lack of flexibility A lot of times, the women car is so empty that you could play a game of Twister on the floor, and not hit anyone. Maybe, at certain hours, they should let some occupy even just one of the small cars out of the three.

One things for certain though, during these six days, as a frequent male passenger of the MRT 3, this entire segregation scheme has been one big pain in the behind. I arrive tired at work, and get beat up and pushed around while going home. Long lines feel like the death march, and waiting for the time I could ride a train seem to take forever.

In the near future, I wouldn't be surprised if the MRT officials decide to higher a pusher similar to Japan and India to pack the passengers in.