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| From autocar.com |
The quoted passage below is from Laguna Transport Hub still Empty, a news article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and published on the 30th of April, 2019, Tuesday.
A Bulan, Sorsogon-bound passenger, who wanted to be identified only as Janice, was the lone passenger in the waiting area of SRIT when the Inquirer visited the terminal on Saturday.
“They said the bus already left Pasay (City in Metro Manila) at 7 a.m. Maybe it got stuck in traffic,” she said.
Janice, 36, did not mind waiting for an hour, though, saying it was more convenient for her than having to travel from this city to Pasay and therefore spending more for the fare.
When the bus arrived at 9:20 a.m., terminal employees assisted Janice into boarding the vehicle with her luggage in tow.
Another woman, who was trying to catch a ride to Cubao, Quezon City, said she preferred taking the van instead.
There is no restriction so far with vans using Edsa.
I was reading between the lines on this article and this is what I've come up with. For clarity I shall focus on what is quoted - and made it noticeable when I didn't.
Every quarter of the year and on official capacity, I commute to the City of Calamba. Also for an untold number more, I have travels to the south which are for leisure, but that is infrequent. That’s it. I am no expert.
You can dismiss me immediately when it suits you. But I have been on the road many times in the immediate area so I have impressions, on what is written and maybe what is missing.
Every quarter of the year and on official capacity, I commute to the City of Calamba. Also for an untold number more, I have travels to the south which are for leisure, but that is infrequent. That’s it. I am no expert.
You can dismiss me immediately when it suits you. But I have been on the road many times in the immediate area so I have impressions, on what is written and maybe what is missing.
The first point to
remember is that as of the article’s publishing the MMDA is only implementing a
voluntary
dry run, hoping to observe issues which they may be able to correct when
it’s time for full implementation.
Issues observed could mean the absence of
volunteers (hence empty station) because the plan is getting so much public
flak; still insufficient information dissemination campaign; and lack of
infrastructure and appropriate protocols.
Personally I wouldn’t hold my
breath that any issues can be ironed out. It’s almost a guarantee with
population increase the traffic gets worse. Locations don’t make it better.
The ultimate problem of the Santa
Rosa Integrated Terminal (SRIT) is that when shit hits the fan, like rain
shutting down most of Metro Manila, passengers would be stranded in Santa
Rosa City, Laguna. They have no lives there. In a better world they should have
never have been there.
Manila-bound, the bus could be caught in a gridlock but
it would still on the journey albeit stuck in transit. Province-bound, once out
of Manila, a bus would be at full speed to its destination.
At SRIT, passengers will be stuck on the question, is there a bus? There's nothing more painful to a commuter than not knowing if there's a ride.
At SRIT, passengers will be stuck on the question, is there a bus? There's nothing more painful to a commuter than not knowing if there's a ride.
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| Santa Rosa Integrated Terminal (SRIT) from the Philippine Daily Inquirer |
The bus left Pasay at 7 am and arrived at 9:20 am.
I am willing to entertain the
possibility that the 7 am bus and the 9:20 am that arrived are two different
buses. Without rain, 2 hours and 20 minutes is too long, but not impossible, coming
from a terminal in Pasay City.
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| I rode the same bus line to Batangas Pier from the Manila Times |
On a good day (weekday) I was able to travel
between the Gil Puyat (Buendia) Pasay set of bus stations to Batangas City
under roughly the same
amount of time.
What if a bus did leave around 7
am but because there are no protocols of yet and to avoid irate passengers who
won’t be appreciative of any diversions, it just went straight. Instead what
came was a bus that followed 1 hour later, already advised by Pasay Terminal
that a lone passenger at SRIT was missed.
Since the departure time is known
and Janice was picked up suggests contact with the Pasay station, maybe even
the driver or conductor. Also, had an earlier bus ignored SRIT altogether it
would have been known and the reporter would have noted it.
May 1 is a Wednesday, a holiday,
and the article refers to a Saturday ocular visit to SRIT. I don’t know if that
2 plus hours is a regular Saturday traffic or if Labor Day had an effect
despite being surrounded by working days (Monday-Tuesday).
My travels to the south have often been on weekdays at official capacity and shouldn’t 7 am on a weekend be too early for a gridlock?
My travels to the south have often been on weekdays at official capacity and shouldn’t 7 am on a weekend be too early for a gridlock?
Pasay EDSA and Gil
Puyat (Buendia) are located at the tip of EDSA and also the tip of SLEX. The area has no
malls, offices, or significant stops to speak of; once out of Buendia and a
turn into Osmeña it should have been
smooth sailing.
If we are to accept that travel time from Pasay, as it was
written, it means that coming from EDSA Cubao is worse. Conservatively coming
from Cubao can add 1 hour to the travel time.
Now, imagine full implementation of SRIT and you’re on a city bus to
Santa Rosa City. Coming from Cubao it took 3 hours to get out of Metro Manila.
At SRIT the passenger repeats the process that got them on a city bus to Santa Rosa, but this time for a provincial bus: disembark potentially with luggage, buy tickets, wait in line for the provincial bus, load the luggage and then get on the bus. Let’s assume the SRIT process can eat up 30 minutes to 1 hour, again conservatively.
At SRIT the passenger repeats the process that got them on a city bus to Santa Rosa, but this time for a provincial bus: disembark potentially with luggage, buy tickets, wait in line for the provincial bus, load the luggage and then get on the bus. Let’s assume the SRIT process can eat up 30 minutes to 1 hour, again conservatively.
4 hours just to be able to say one is actually full speed ahead to the provinces? On a good day at 4 hours, coming from the City of Manila, albeit outside of a bus route (official vehicle), it is possible to be within reach of Lucena City.
Conspicuously absent in the news article is the place of origin of Janice,
who was province-bound, and the second woman, who was Manila-bound. Dry run
notwithstanding, it would be an interesting piece of information to know how a
passenger’s overall travel time is affected.
Janice’s 2 hour 20 minute long
wait in an empty station is still a good day. A fully loaded integrated
terminal would have made it worse.
The bus came from Pasay City
Because passenger inconvenience
is the thrust of every public condemnation of the plan, not surprisingly the
news article is passenger centric.
How are the passengers doing in this dry run
period? How ready is SRIT in receiving said passengers? Also noted was the
terminal staff assisting Janice. There’s a June
6 article in the Manila Standard that fares will be just the same; MMDA is on
overtime trying to alleviate the worry.
We are aware that the riding
public is not happy about SRIT. We are aware of the air-conditioning and seats
that are available at SRIT. SM is quite prominent in the background of the
Inquirer article so there’s that.
But how will buses operate at the Santa Rosa Integrated Terminal?
But how will buses operate at the Santa Rosa Integrated Terminal?
Coming from Pasay is as normal as
coming from Cubao. It’s the current system which the MMDA through the SRIT
hoping to change. Janice in Santa Rosa was the fluke; Pasay was the real
pick-up point.
There’s no information about buses because Inquirer had nothing to observe that was waiting for passengers, load passengers, or waiting for their turn as buses ahead of them are loading.
There’s no information about buses because Inquirer had nothing to observe that was waiting for passengers, load passengers, or waiting for their turn as buses ahead of them are loading.
One of the key services provided
by the bus companies is schedule. It may not matter if it’s a specific time or
a bus leaves every hour between 6 am to 6 pm, the bus companies can do that
because they are at their own station. A fleet of buses is waiting on standby:
one leaves, another bus takes its place.
I saw an entire yard of buses – Victory Liner – 1 km. away from Cubao, so at least for the bigger bus companies, within the area of the terminals their reserves run deep. Maybe they even have mechanics and towing vehicles on hand in case of emergencies.
I saw an entire yard of buses – Victory Liner – 1 km. away from Cubao, so at least for the bigger bus companies, within the area of the terminals their reserves run deep. Maybe they even have mechanics and towing vehicles on hand in case of emergencies.
MMDA has listed 47 bus stations
on EDSA. The bigger fleets have stations in both Cubao and Pasay. If those with
two stations count as one, subtract the bus companies going north, what remains
are the bus companies that will need to be organized at the SRIT.
The less bus companies in SRIT
the better because can you imagine organizing, let’s pretend, 47 bus companies
in a small area. Cubao and Pasay is spread out which makes it kind of
manageable.
If the buses want to keep that every hour service, the Santa Rosa Integrated Terminal should be able to hold more than a few buses on standby, for more than one bus company.
If the buses want to keep that every hour service, the Santa Rosa Integrated Terminal should be able to hold more than a few buses on standby, for more than one bus company.
That is, if it’s even possible to
organize the station according to bus companies or would it be by destination. Was
there ever a story anywhere about this, how these new integrated terminals organize the buses?
And we’re not even talking about
city buses yet. City buses (including
vans, P2Ps, and taxis)
and provincial buses, including reserves, will converge on SRIT, fighting over
space. That’s potentially double the amount removed from EDSA – city public utility vehicles (PUVs) + provincial buses.
Another thing, the provincial
buses heading out to the provinces should be fresh at least the ones going Bicol. I don’t know how
these Bicol buses do their shifting but by Laguna, driver and reserve driver
would be maxed out. They should not turn around like a city bus and carry the
next set of passengers back to Bicol.
But what could they do? Will they
drop off passengers in Santa Rosa and then head out to their once operating bus
stations on Cubao or Pasay to sleep? Can SRIT carry those bus reserves as well
as living spaces for all the drivers?
The best scenario would be a bus
company buying property in Santa Rosa City with the same purpose as what
Victory Liner did, 1 km. away from Cubao. But I doubt it.
One, that needs an enormous amount of money; two, SRIT is under dispute by the riding public, including Cong. Joey Salceda filing a petition at the Supreme Court. It would be a risky investment at this point.
One, that needs an enormous amount of money; two, SRIT is under dispute by the riding public, including Cong. Joey Salceda filing a petition at the Supreme Court. It would be a risky investment at this point.
The facepalm moment, as I’m
mentally juggling how to organize in one small space, is when I take into
consideration what can be read under the heading Interim Terminal, 2nd paragraph, also of the same article, Laguna
Transport Hub still Empty,
Biñan City, which has
jurisdiction of the closest exit to reach SRIT, wants window hours similar to
what MMDA
has already implemented on EDSA. Santa Rosa itself is embarking on road
widening projects.
All the while I had this
impression, Metro Manila is crowded therefore the bus stations are thrown
farther out at a nearby province because there’s open space. Only there isn’t.
There’s no farmland that became SRIT rather two cities surround SRIT, with population that goes to and from Metro Manila every day to work. That part about recommending a Metro Manila-like window hours is telling.
There’s no farmland that became SRIT rather two cities surround SRIT, with population that goes to and from Metro Manila every day to work. That part about recommending a Metro Manila-like window hours is telling.
I named this section ‘The bus
station is in Pasay’, because it caught my attention. Everything that a bus
company will need to guarantee service to their loyal customers may not be in
Santa Rosa; may not have enough space in Santa Rosa. Their entire way of
business is either in Metro Manila or the provinces which they have invested in
the stations or stopovers to provide passenger comfort or staff support.
What are the chances that every
resource by the bus company will still remain in EDSA (Pasay to Cubao) except
for the loading and unloading of passengers?
Having to travel SLEX only to
stop at Santa Rosa means both passengers and bus companies will have no
complete control over their resources, most especially time. Schedules may be
the most important thing in travel. SLEX is just too long and unpredictable if
given the additional load of provincial buses and city PUVs combined.
Taking a Van to Cubao
I don’t have the traffic data and
motion studies or whatever that the MMDA may have, but I’ve been playing out
the SRIT idea as far as my meager understanding can manage. Its not math but here goes.
Bus stations are moved to Santa
Rosa City so it creates a vacuum in EDSA up to Pasay where their stations once
stood or were operational. Traffic has lessened because there is vacated space; the provincial
buses are in SRIT.
However, while there’s now space, the required service of getting people from Metro Manila to the provinces still exists.
However, while there’s now space, the required service of getting people from Metro Manila to the provinces still exists.
At first I had expected that
current city bus franchises will be spread out, meaning what once only went to
Alabang will head farther out into Santa Rosa City which is almost 18
kilometers away. Spreading out the pieces like one would do in a chess board has
been done in PITX. Fairview, which is northeast of Metro Manila, has buses with
routes that now stretch
as far as Parañaque into PITX.
There are potential problems in
spreading a route out too thinly. PITX can be reached either by EDSA or through
España and then Taft (these buses I normally see), and since not all buses want
to go that far out every time, I can’t say for sure if PITX has affected the
buses that I do take significantly.
Only SLEX feeds into Santa Rosa City where spreading too thinly will be more of a problem, especially with the added load of provincial passengers.
Only SLEX feeds into Santa Rosa City where spreading too thinly will be more of a problem, especially with the added load of provincial passengers.
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| Cong. Joey Salceda filing at the Supreme Court from CNNPhilippines |
What I didn’t expect is that the provincial buses that have been taken out of Metro Manila will be replaced immediately as reported by Congressman Joey Salceda:
Salceda also said the ban on 6,000 provincial buses is not likely to solve Metro Manila’s traffic problems because the national government, through the LTFRB, is expected to give permits to 14,000 new premium taxis, 2,000 new P2P buses, and thousands of new UV Express vans to transport the more than 50,000 passengers who will get off the two stop-off points every day.
P2P buses are expected but I
wonder why only 2,000 units. There’s no information as to how these buses will
be divided between stop-off points in the SRIT in the south and Valenzuela
in the north. Replacing 6,000 provincial buses, at face value at least, the
amount of P2Ps doesn’t bring back the once vacated space to what was the
normal.
Also at face value, 14,000
premium taxis (whatever that means) and thousands of UV express will occupy much
more space than what was vacated by provincial buses.
I don’t understand why policy makers think this is a good idea when every approach in the world at reducing traffic is mass transit. Tokyo, one of the largest cities in the world has mastered trains, and there's hardly a vlogger who wouldn't recommend trains if you google 'how to get around Japan'.
Why pick anything smaller than a bus - in their thousands - through a route that has toll gates, and do it twice – going in Santa Rosa and going out Bicutan? Remember that toll gate in the middle of Skyway, Santa Rosa Integrated Terminal might end up the same because it can interrupt what should be a straight smooth flowing expressway.
I don’t understand why policy makers think this is a good idea when every approach in the world at reducing traffic is mass transit. Tokyo, one of the largest cities in the world has mastered trains, and there's hardly a vlogger who wouldn't recommend trains if you google 'how to get around Japan'.
Why pick anything smaller than a bus - in their thousands - through a route that has toll gates, and do it twice – going in Santa Rosa and going out Bicutan? Remember that toll gate in the middle of Skyway, Santa Rosa Integrated Terminal might end up the same because it can interrupt what should be a straight smooth flowing expressway.
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| From NikkeiAsian |
There’s no comment on possible
Grab vehicles diverting to Santa Rosa City. If policy makers can imagine 14,000
premium taxis can have a business servicing provincial passengers, why not
Grab? There is a comfort in knowing the final bill before agreeing on a more
personalized transport service. Although more expensive it’s certainly better
than watch a taxi meter rack up cost like a clock.
I haven’t taken taxi out into
SLEX because why the hell would I, but as far as I know in such trips, and this
may be true of Grab also, is that that the customer pays the toll fee on top of
the actual fare. Again, guessing conservatively, the bill could reach PHP 1000.
With almost the same amount I would have enough for a bus fare to Legazpi City
on a premium 2x1 bus.
It’s just sad that any provincial
passenger would have to spend as much travelling for lesser distance, for just
a stopover. SRIT is just a stopover. It is not Metro Manila and it’s not full
speed ahead to the provinces.
When you think about terminals
this debate on EDSA bus stations and SRIT goes full circle. P2P buses and vans
would need a terminal or terminals. Will there be any other candidates besides
Cubao and Pasay?
Taxis being what they are can be
allowed not to stay in a terminal, although that would be costly in terms of
fuel, wandering aimlessly for just passengers going to Santa Rosa. They could
take in the normal city fare just to compensate the gas, make a living since
bus stations have off peak seasons. Once they go around like normal taxis what’s
to stop them from being the abusive one.
So there you are, what's between the lines and doing the math. The number of
vehicles stays the same, traffic stays the same. Passenger/commuter difficulty,
however, goes in a new level of hell.
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