Tag: commute

  • To avoid lines at LRT-1 Northbound: buy up to 5 coupons per transaction

    To avoid lines at LRT-1 Northbound: buy up to 5 coupons per transaction

    I usually post in English, but this will be a mix of English and Tagalog. I’m writing this to let people know of a way to somehow shorten the lines for ticket booths at LRT-1 Northbound. It seems that not every passenger knows about the “Modified Coupon System”. Pa’no ba naman, hindi kapansin-pansin yung posters nila tungkol sa bagong system. Wala man lang ibang form of announcement.


    LRT-1 Beep Card Update:

    Pwede nang gamitin ang Beep cards at any LRT-1 station, Northbound man o Southbound! I’ll try to keep updating the post about my LRT-1 Beep card experience when there’s anything new to add. 🙂


    If you take a Northbound LRT-1 train every night like I do, then you’ve experienced the very long lines just to buy a coupon (ticket). The coupons are being used because the Beep card system has not yet been implemented for Northbound trips of LRT-1.

    Paano nga ba mababawasan ang pila sa LRT-1 Northbound?

    Pwede na tayong bumili ng hanggang 5 coupons per transaction, thanks to this temporary “Modified Coupon System” for Northbound LRT-1 trips.

    Meaning, the next few times you have to take an LRT-1 train Northbound, you proceed straight to the platform area, past the long line of people who are just about to buy their coupon. UNLESS may pila sa platform area dahil sa “Passenger Limit per Platform” scheme nila.

    Kung may pila man dahil sa limiting of passengers, I think it’s okay. At least we skip the long lines for the ticket booths.

    LRT-1 paper ticket coupon
    LRT-1 20-Peso paper ticket (coupon).

    Honestly, when I read about this new system, medyo nainis ako. Ang impression kasi sa akin, mapapatagal pa ma-implement ang Beep card system sa Northbound side ng LRT-1.

    My game plan for my nightly Northbound LRT-1 trips

    Note: Five times per week, I take a Northbound train.

    Every Monday morning, I’ll go to the Northbound side of my LRT-1 station just to buy 5 coupons. Less hassle ito, kasi maikli lang usually (and relatively) ang pila sa ticket booths pag umaga. 🙂

    Tapos ayun, having 5 coupons every Monday, I’ll have enough coupons hanggang Friday na, para sa gabi-gabi kong pagsakay sa LRT papuntang North.

    Mas okay kesa gabi-gabing pipila sa ticket booth diba?

    Alternative on Mondays: Minsan may kahabaan din ang pila sa Northbound pag umaga, so pwedeng every Monday night pipila tayo para bumili ng 5 coupons. :3

    Pa-kwento lang ha…

    This week I noticed a new poster at an LRT-1 station pero hindi ko gaano mabasa kasi sa super babang part ng dingding ba naman dinikit, natatakpan ng legs ng mga passengers na nakapila sa ticket booths. So hinanap ko sa Twitter ni @attycabs and @officialLRT1. Found it! Heto siya:

    Modified Coupon System for LRT-1 Northbound
    Modified Coupon System for LRT-1 Northbound. To view in full size, right-click above image (or press and hold if you’re on mobile / tablet) then click on “open link in new tab”

    Then I asked LRT-1 staffs, just to confirm, if I could go straight to the platform area for as long as I have extra coupons. I was in doubt because there was one night when I think I heard a guard telling a lady that she still needed to fall in line even when she already had a coupon. That was before I saw posters of the “Modified Coupon System” at LRT-1 Northbound stations though.

    So tonight, I took a little detour. Dumaan muna ako sa mall na kadikit ng LRT-1 station na sinasakyan ko. Yung top floor kasi, may exit na diretso na sa entrance to the platform. Tinanong ko muna yung guards, “Pwede na po dumiretso sa loob? May ticket na po.” And they said, pwede na.

    It was a less stressful evening. Di na ko naging parte ng mahabang pila papuntang ticket gates. Swerte din dahil walang pila sa platform area sa station ko. Try niyo na rin! 😀

  • How to buy and reload Beep cards in LRT stations

    How to buy and reload Beep cards in LRT stations

    You’re on this page probably because you want to know how you can avail Beep cards at LRT stations. Or maybe for the first time, your Beep card is about to run out of load. Maybe you don’t take LRT trains but just a little curious. 🙂

    The Beep card ticketing system was first tried at LRT-2, and just a few days ago, it was also launched at LRT-1 but limited to Southbound trips at the moment. You can read about my LRT-1 Beep card system experience.

    The Beep card’s ticket vending machine does not give change, so you may only insert the exact amount you want to load into your card. Maybe the tellers at the LRT ticket booths can give you a change.

    Here’s how you can buy and re-load a Beep card:

    LRT: how to buy Beep cards from ticket vending machines

    LRT: how to reload Beep cards in ticket vending machines

    How to buy Beep card from Ticket Vending Machines

    1. Choose “Stored Value Card” option on the ticket vending machine screen
    2. Insert bills or coins into the machine’s slot.
    3. Take your Beep card when the ticket vending machine dispenses it.

    How to re-load your Beep card

    1. Place your Beep card on the “Stored Value Card” reader of the ticket vending machine. Leave it there while you reload your Beep card.
    2. Choose the “Add Value” option on the machine’s screen.
    3. Insert exact amount of money into the machine. The ticket vending machines DO NOT give change. The amount you insert will be the amount loaded into your Beep card.
    4. Wait for the message “Transaction Successful” to show in the screen. Do not remove your Beep card yet!
    5. The screen will show you the updated amount of load in your Stored Value Beep card
  • LRT Beep card: my experience with the new ticketing system

    LRT Beep card: my experience with the new ticketing system

    Tap-and-go na ang ticketing system LRT-1, Southbound man o Northbound! This is thanks to the LRT Beep cards. Hopefully, the next upgrade in our train system would be for the improvement of train availability.

    As I write this in late September, I can’t say that I feel any improvement in my daily and nightly commute via LRT-1 during rush hour after the implementation of the LRT Beep card system. Maybe it’s just me, but have the lines for turnstiles when exiting train station gotten worse since we started using LRT Beep cards? I really hope that this is just because people are still adjusting in this new system.

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  • GrabTaxi: I could never successfully book a taxi :(

    GrabTaxi: I could never successfully book a taxi 🙁

    grab taxi

    I always wanted to try the GrabTaxi app. Booking from them is expensive, but security is an important thing that they can give passengers so that’s okay. But my attempts have never been successful. I think it’s a combination of bad signalling from GrabTaxi and bad internet connection in my house.

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