MRT, LRT, or monorail?

Call it by any other denomination, but they all are lumped into one category – rail transportation. Or what we colloquially term as “train.” Which, basically, is a kind of transportation consisting of a series of units carrying passengers or cargo, or both, pulled by a locomotive which provides power for its motion. Such a long definition when everybody knows what a train is. M and R stands for “mass” and “light” while RT is “rail transit” of course, with two rails. Monorails obviously only have one.

All rail transports are actually the same as they are built and operated on the same principles. They’re intended to be fast which is why they needed “stations” in the first place (to pick up or alight passengers) and do not stop anywhere, like our ordinary buses and jeepneys. And because speed is obviously a raison d'être, stations are far apart which is one of their few drawbacks. That is why in their early stages, trains were mostly used for long-distance travel. When they became fashionable in urban areas, they’re mostly overhead or underground, where we get the term “subway.”

Trains are “sexy” if you may allow the colloquial term. People love them, especially young kids, mostly boys, who want the toy miniatures for Christmas. This sentiment we carry when we grow old especially that we may not have them in our country or city. Anybody who visited Singapore would boast about having used their super-efficient train system. Visitors love their trains and always use them. Many don’t know that more Singaporeans use buses rather than trains in their daily home-to-work trips.

So why don’t we have trains in Cebu? Well, if we can, why not? A lot of those who know me may be surprised that I, too, would love to have trains in Cebu. That’s because I was an ardent advocate for the Bus Rapid transit (BRT) since 2008. And many won’t understand the reason for that. Early on, I realized there is fundamentally no difference between all those rail denominations and the BRT in the way they transport people. The sole difference between the MRT/LRT/ Monorail and the BRT are their wheels --made of steel on the former and rubber on the latter. But they are conceptually exactly the same.

Then why not rail for Cebu? My answer has remained the same for the last 30 years: Sure, why not? When they become feasible! Unfortunately, people refuse to understand that we can’t have things simply because we want them. They cost money, people’s money, our money! Even the toy trains our parents bought before paid for them, too. Unfortunately, rail costs a lot of money, and are often not feasible, financially, or economically. We have not run out of rail proposals since the late ‘80’s, I guess between 10 to 20 already. They all failed and couldn’t get NEDA approval. The last one was a monorail in 2018 --it’s still pending there. Until someone comes up with a feasible project, rail will remain in our dreams. But the BRT, which is essentially of the same species, is being built --a mass transport system running on rubber rather than on steel.

"There is fundamentally no difference between all those rail denominations and the BRT in the way they transport people. "