Metro Manila's roads are allocated upside-down.

Opening different social media platforms that relate to public transportation, it is easy to spot-on that even any Juan Dela Cruz out there knows the real solutions in Metro Manila's traffic problems; often you would see comments like, “build more trains”, “create more subways”, “start supporting railways”. Right? Because indeed this is the reality for almost all successful cities out there. The question is, why can't we do it in Manila, right?

The table on the rightbelow showcases the live count of the “active” and “pending” railway stations in Metro Manila. Together in the table includes other crucial information like the year of its operability and where it connects to other railway systems. As you can see, there was a spike in the number of stations during the late 1990's and around 84' to 85' — where, Metro Manila was once held the first city to have a rapid transit service in Southeast Asia. Wow! Upon celebrating the new millennium, Metro Manila was already about to have 31 stations (upon the completion of MRT3).

This number increases up to 42 total stations including the LRT2 that happens during the early 2000's. Even up to the late 2010's, Metro Manila was able to inaugurate two more additional stations for LRT1, thus increasing the total active stations in Metro Manila, up to 44 stations.

But for almost a decade, no stations were inaugurated. No additional stations were built, nothing increased in terms of railway stations, only an increase in population. In a past survey from Philippine Statistics Authority, Metro Manila had a total population of 11 million people during 2010.^[1] Mind you, in 2010, 11 million people were using 44 rail stations.

A question of why, right? Why does nothing happen? Why were no trains built?

Right-of-way issue, lack of funding, no political will. Many more, actually. One joke that I can write about this, is that — in Metro Manila, it takes an administration to plan a line (Aquino Administration), it takes another administration to build the line (Duterte Administration), it takes another administration to open its partial operability (hopefully Marcos Administration), and another administration to complete the whole line (another administration). Alone, it takes four administrations to just complete a 22 km rail line. Is it funny? To some, yes, but to every Juan Dela Cruz, it's an obvious “no”.

But we have to be optimistic, right? Be hopeful? Because as of writing this, two more stations were added in LRT2 lines, and four more stations were added for LRT1, thus increasing the total active railway stations up-to 51 stations.

Hopefully if the estimates are correct, we will have a common station in 2027, 12 more stations in the same year (MRT7) and 2 more in 2028 (MRT7), and 9 more stations for 2029 (MMSP), 3 more stations for LRT1 extension in year 2031 and an additional 8 more stations in 2032 (MMSP).^[6] Again, only if the estimates are correct. To top it all up, NSCR will increase the number of stations in Metro Manila to even more than 15 stations once completed. This alone can increase the number of “active” stations in Metro Manila from 51 today to 101 stations, hopefully. Big Long Overdue Wow!

But the question is, is 101 stations enough already? Is it fine? Is 101 the new number?

Let me present to you four other cities that might be crucial in answering this question. In doing this quest to answer the 101 question, we will utilize three crucial points: “area/land mass (A)”, “population (P)”, and “number of railway stations (NRS)”. These three constructs are enough, hopefully enough to answer this question.

Let's start first with Seoul, South Korea. It's A = 605.21 km², P = 9.7 million, and NRS = 338^[2]. Now, given these data, let's pull some facts about our beloved capital, Metro Manila*, A = 636 km², P = 14 million, and NRS = 51^[1]. Now, let's dissect these numbers.

*We will use Metro Manila, and not Manila. Metro Manila is composed of 17 LGU's. While Manila is, City of Manila.

In terms of area (A), Metro Manila is relatively larger than Seoul. In terms of population (P), Metro Manila is relatively larger too, and in terms of NRS, Seoul is relatively thrice the number of Metro Manila.

Question now, do we really need it? 300 stations to be built in Metro Manila?

Well this is why we will bring four cities, right? Not just one?

Let's continue it with Singapore, Singapore. In SG, it's A = 700 km², P = 5.9 million, and NRS = 143^[3], another city worthy to mention is Taipei Metro Area, in Taipei Metro Area it's A = 2,457 km², P = 7.0 million, and NRS = 131^[4]. Let's continue dissecting these two cities.

Upon seeing these figures, it is quite relatively easy to spot that the drastic number of railway stations is only about 130–140 stations only. Which is somehow much closer to 101 in terms of the active stations that we will have in Metro Manila and way lower than the 300+ stations of Seoul.

One thing that separates Metro Manila from these cities are its people. People are more disciplined. Joke. The thing that separates Metro Manila is the land size of these two cities. We can easily observe that the number of stations for railways is not relatively needed to be a lot in terms of area. Since these cities are bigger than Seoul yet much lower in NRS.

So there is hope. Hope, not the cigarette brand but hope that Metro Manila is still on its way to finding the right NRS.

Another elephant in the room is the “Population”. As these cities are obviously much lower than the population of Metro Manila. One city that is relatively close to serving 14 million is Tokyo Metropolis. One thing about Tokyo Metropolis is, its NRS is around 882^[5]. Yes, 882 NRS.

Well, I guess that's where I surrender my case.

If indeed we believe the “build more trains”, “start building subways”, are the real answer to this long overdue question of Metro Manila's traffic then we might not even be alive as to when Metro Manila can finally acquire these NRS based on these cities mentioned alone.

“Expand BRT”, “Connect People”, and “Prioritize Mass Transportation”, these have been the core arguments of Manila Busway Transit, that indeed the bus system should be taken a look at too. The Hierarchy of Movement does not lie, whatever problem we have in traffic right now is presented thoroughly in that diagram.

Keep flooding your streets with the middle tiers of the Hierarchy of Movement and you'll have exactly what we have right now. But prioritise the ones that move people more, then it would be more convenient moving the rest of the 14 million people, even higher if properly planned.

Again, building of railways is not an overnight thing, and it will never be but the lives of ever Filipino commuters lies within the system that we creates for them.