Bad news about either of our major train systems is nothing new, but this week’s round of MRT disasters and borderline madness is just that little bit of extra.
This morning, passengers of the Manila Metro Rail Transit System lived a scene straight out of an action movie. Two of the train’s coaches detached while the train was moving, and the passengers were forced to walk along the train tracks from Ayala station to Buendia station. Thankfully, no one got hurt.
The same couldn’t be said, however, for what happened just a couple of days ago where a woman had her arm amputated after falling off the train platform.
How did that saying go? Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern. If that logic applied to our train systems, then we’d have an entire weave on our hands. Let’s recall all the other instances that prove our train systems are in dire need of renovations, shall we? Maybe if the government is reminded again, they’ll finally do something about it. Oh, wishful thinking.
Runaway coach
I know this was already mentioned above, but it deserves another mention just from the sheer meta-nature of the incident. It’s like living out a scene from Jason Bourne or some Bruce Willis movie.
Dismembered arm
If a runaway cart feels like it’s straight out of an action film, this one feels like a scene from Final Destination. Last Tuesday afternoon, Angeline Fernando fainted while walking along the platform of Ayala Station, and fell in between two coaches. The train moved, and her arm was severed. A passenger who also happened to be a young medical intern along with a police officer and the security personnel present helped Fernando and retrieve the arm.
Doctors were able to reconnect Fernando’s arm 12 hours after the incident.
Gone off the rails
A couple of years back, the MRT3 was derailed at the Taft station after having problems from Magallanes station. The train crashed through the station’s barriers, hitting a pole which ended up falling on a car. Passengers were injured, resulting in heavy traffic in the surrounding area for the rest of the day.
Open doors while in transit
You know that sign on the train doors telling passengers not to lean on them? Well, after the incident of the doors opening while in transit in 2014, people started taking those signs more seriously. Here’s a video of what happened.
It was the first time, but it wasn’t the last.
Daily Delays
It’s not a regular day at the MRT station without some sort of delay or technical difficulty. It can range from waiting five more minutes in line, to having the station announcer suddenly inform passengers that the train is no longer traveling to your stop. People get to work late, which hurts them in the most painful of places, their bank accounts.
Meanwhile, Japan issues a Train Delay Certificate on the rare occasion that any train arrives five minutes late.
Photos courtesy of Facebook.com