Train Today, Gone Tomorrow
The world is abuzz with high speed train travel. Honestly it has been that way for the last 25 years but only recently with the rapid growth in China have some Americans begun to feel we are being left behind. Honestly it shouldn't just be a feeling, we are being left behind. While the politicians bicker our aging infrastructure falls apart. Our bridges fall down, our roads become bumpy. Our sewer systems leak and our power generation becomes more and more 20th century.
We always hear about China this and China that but the only contact that most American's have with China is shopping at Walmart. We can't really conceive how different things could be. When I visited my friend in China in 2011 I had a taste of things first hand. Everywhere you look infrastructure is new. While this is certainly not representative of all of China, industrial China is linking itself increasingly with modern road, rail and telecommunication networks. South Korea has some of the greatest high speed internet penetration on earth and their slow networks are faster than anything we can imagine.
In China building is everywhere. Massive numbers of new apartment high rises dot the landscape. Recently the longest sea bridge in the world was opened. Three Gorges Dam is the largest in the world. Rail systems are being built to link the nation with high speed train travel the likes that America has never known. I boarded a train in an ultra modern station in Shanghai and traveled to Qingdao, 625 miles to the north, in five and a half hours. The train averaged a speed of 215 miles an hour as it silently traversed the country side. The major gateway airports in Korea and China are like nothing we have ever seen in America. They are virtually cathedrals of space and design.
Most Americans have no idea but America has a shadow in Asia. The shadow is the Philippines. Once an American colony the modern Philippines was built to reflect our government, our economic system and our educational system. It does not follow a totalitarian model like China. Instead it is a nation where open commerce and business needs rule the day. The result is a chaotic network of roads, malls and infrastructure that make little sense. Despite this fact, the Filipinos are trying to construct a mass transit system in Manila that is fighting a horrendous tide as it takes shape. Nothing is coordinated. Four lines of light rail each utilizing different equipment cross the city in a haphazard fashion. To get from one line to another you have to leave the station and walk blocks to another station.
Despite this fact when faced with the near constant gridlock of Manila traffic I decided I was going to use it. I was going to experience light rail in the Philippines. I mean really, how bad could it be? I have taken trains and subways all over the world. From the jungles of Bolivia, where praying mantis once rested on my head as I sat in a broken coach seat and had to periodically duck to avoid branches swinging through the windows of the passing train car, to the time tested routes of Europe where timeliness is not just a fact, it is a work of art.
The first thing you notice when entering a Filipino Light Rail Trans station or LRT, is the basic lack of organization. Lines stretch toward ticket windows but once you get there and buy your ticket, there is no escape. Somehow someone worked through the idea of getting a person to the point of buying but failed to figure out how to help them leave when their transaction was concluded. In the Philippines there is this obsession with checking everything. Bags are checked, bodies are patted down. I guess the reasons for this date to the occasional shopping mall bombs planted by muslim separatists but after being a victim of the searches on countless occasions I have to wonder about the general effectiveness. Typically you approach a table of smartly dressed uniformed security guards. They are always wearing a hat and their uniforms are perfectly pressed in ninety degree heat with nearly one hundred percent humidity. They have an menagerie of seemingly disconnected items hanging off their belts. My favorite was the little white pouch with a blue cross female guards often carried. I always wondered if there really were medical supplies inside or if it was simply a convenient place to put lunch.
As you approach them you often divide into two lines, one for men and one for women. Sometimes you open your bag and they poke it with a drum stick. What they are looking for I have no idea as the drumstick seldom makes it past the first layer. They then pat you down on the sides of your body neglecting everything else. I have to confess, when confronted with another search there were numerous times when I slipped through the female line. I figured I might as well at least enjoy the pat down if I had to have it.
My favorite however was a line we passed through at a metal detector in a shopping mall leaving the LRT. Everyone that passed through was beeping. There was a sound, the exasperated guard said nothing and the people moved on. I took a look at the scanner and noticed there was a counter on the side. The digital numbers in red displayed the number of people that passed through and number of alarms sounded. The days count for alarms sounded was literally in the thousands.
So anyway, back to the LRT. Once you have your ticket in hand you scan it and then join a new throng of humanity walking down to the platform and crowding onto the trains. If you are lucky, like win the lottery kind of luck you get a seat. If not, you pack like a smelly sardine can into a solid mass of people. Perhaps the only godsend is that if the thing ever crashed your body would physically have no where to fly to. When the firemen inserted the giant sardine key over the top of the car they could just pluck you out still standing up.
We were riding the LRT one day and as the doors opened I was feeling supremely confident in my ability and position. The crowd surged yet one stalwart man who was occupying a commanding position in front of a doorway refused to move. It was not his stop and he wasn't about to yield his ground. So all around him masses of people tried to squeeze by. I was first followed by my wife and son. I was worried that we had to get out as soon as possible because the unforgiving doors would close on you in an instant leaving you either trapped inside or hanging partially outside as the train started to move again. I still have visions of being on a subway in Egypt one day when I observed a man with his body half way in a crowded car when the doors closed. The man was literally hanging half way out of the car with his leg and arm flailing back and forth as the subway moved down the track. Fortunately for him, some other passengers grabbed him from the inside and pulled the rest of his body through.
Seizing an opportunity, I made my move as the crowd pushed behind me and then something happened. I must have turned back to look for my wife and son when my left foot suddenly slipped and fell into the gap between the train and platform. You know that little dark space we always look at when we step over the threshold? Well in the Philippines that little dark space must have been the size of a foot because down I went. My whole body fell over backward and my head barely missed slamming against the concrete platform. In retrospect I can see how people get trampled to death now. The crowd continued around me as Noah and Nikki rushed to my side. I wanted to say to them as Gandalf said while hanging on a ledge of rock bridge with his leg being pulled down by a whip from the underworld demon the Balrog in the Fellowship of the Ring, "Fly you fools! For God sakes, save yourselves." (I added the later)
I remember being in a small state of panic because if my leg didn't move and the train did, I would have been wearing a shirt that said, "I left my leg in Manila." I started to pull and thankfully found nothing was broken. With my leg out Noah helped me and I limped over toward a bench. People were watching me and Nikki was in a full state of panic. "My God, are you okay? Do you need a hospital? Oh my God." I wanted to suggest that she should sit down and rest. All the while my skateboarding son to whom falls are a way of life kept his cool and tried to calm his mother.
"I'm okay," I tried to reassure them as I limped over to a bench and sat down shaking. I stretched out my leg to take stock of the damage. A large scrape ran down from my kneecap and was bleeding a little but there was no meat hanging off. With that I breathed a deep sigh of relief. Together we left the platform and made straight for a pharmacy where Noah had the presence of mind to ask for ice as I bought iodine and bandages. I thought the most prudent thing would be to disinfect it as soon as possible. God only knows what grows on a train platform in the Philippines. Thoughts of third world amputations with rusty saws flashed through my mind.
The LRT in the Philippines hasn't conquered me but I will most certainly mind that gap the next time I am there. I also think I will assume a linebacker stance and blow through anyone standing and blocking the center of the door.
From the ultra modern high speed rails of China to the haphazardly developing light rail systems being constructed in the Philippines I have to say, at least they are all doing something. They are constructing systems that will take them into the future. America must start taking a longer term perspective. When our grandparents generation built the roads, railways and sewers that we rely on today they planned not just for their lifetimes but those that followed. If we as a nation don't start to focus on these things some day we will wake up and find ourselves living in a dilapidated and antiquated society. This is an area where government must act. It is far larger then any private business and the cost benefit analysis is much more complex. Everything in life is not a simple bottom of the line calculation. Since when did sewers make money but we all need them. Highways in America are incredibly subsidized when it comes to maintenance and construction costs but we all drive on them. For years our neighbors in the East looked toward America for a developmental example. Perhaps now it is time for us to look toward the East for a similar example in how to prepare for tomorrow more than today.
We always hear about China this and China that but the only contact that most American's have with China is shopping at Walmart. We can't really conceive how different things could be. When I visited my friend in China in 2011 I had a taste of things first hand. Everywhere you look infrastructure is new. While this is certainly not representative of all of China, industrial China is linking itself increasingly with modern road, rail and telecommunication networks. South Korea has some of the greatest high speed internet penetration on earth and their slow networks are faster than anything we can imagine.
In China building is everywhere. Massive numbers of new apartment high rises dot the landscape. Recently the longest sea bridge in the world was opened. Three Gorges Dam is the largest in the world. Rail systems are being built to link the nation with high speed train travel the likes that America has never known. I boarded a train in an ultra modern station in Shanghai and traveled to Qingdao, 625 miles to the north, in five and a half hours. The train averaged a speed of 215 miles an hour as it silently traversed the country side. The major gateway airports in Korea and China are like nothing we have ever seen in America. They are virtually cathedrals of space and design. Despite this fact when faced with the near constant gridlock of Manila traffic I decided I was going to use it. I was going to experience light rail in the Philippines. I mean really, how bad could it be? I have taken trains and subways all over the world. From the jungles of Bolivia, where praying mantis once rested on my head as I sat in a broken coach seat and had to periodically duck to avoid branches swinging through the windows of the passing train car, to the time tested routes of Europe where timeliness is not just a fact, it is a work of art.
The first thing you notice when entering a Filipino Light Rail Trans station or LRT, is the basic lack of organization. Lines stretch toward ticket windows but once you get there and buy your ticket, there is no escape. Somehow someone worked through the idea of getting a person to the point of buying but failed to figure out how to help them leave when their transaction was concluded. In the Philippines there is this obsession with checking everything. Bags are checked, bodies are patted down. I guess the reasons for this date to the occasional shopping mall bombs planted by muslim separatists but after being a victim of the searches on countless occasions I have to wonder about the general effectiveness. Typically you approach a table of smartly dressed uniformed security guards. They are always wearing a hat and their uniforms are perfectly pressed in ninety degree heat with nearly one hundred percent humidity. They have an menagerie of seemingly disconnected items hanging off their belts. My favorite was the little white pouch with a blue cross female guards often carried. I always wondered if there really were medical supplies inside or if it was simply a convenient place to put lunch.
My favorite however was a line we passed through at a metal detector in a shopping mall leaving the LRT. Everyone that passed through was beeping. There was a sound, the exasperated guard said nothing and the people moved on. I took a look at the scanner and noticed there was a counter on the side. The digital numbers in red displayed the number of people that passed through and number of alarms sounded. The days count for alarms sounded was literally in the thousands.
So anyway, back to the LRT. Once you have your ticket in hand you scan it and then join a new throng of humanity walking down to the platform and crowding onto the trains. If you are lucky, like win the lottery kind of luck you get a seat. If not, you pack like a smelly sardine can into a solid mass of people. Perhaps the only godsend is that if the thing ever crashed your body would physically have no where to fly to. When the firemen inserted the giant sardine key over the top of the car they could just pluck you out still standing up.
We were riding the LRT one day and as the doors opened I was feeling supremely confident in my ability and position. The crowd surged yet one stalwart man who was occupying a commanding position in front of a doorway refused to move. It was not his stop and he wasn't about to yield his ground. So all around him masses of people tried to squeeze by. I was first followed by my wife and son. I was worried that we had to get out as soon as possible because the unforgiving doors would close on you in an instant leaving you either trapped inside or hanging partially outside as the train started to move again. I still have visions of being on a subway in Egypt one day when I observed a man with his body half way in a crowded car when the doors closed. The man was literally hanging half way out of the car with his leg and arm flailing back and forth as the subway moved down the track. Fortunately for him, some other passengers grabbed him from the inside and pulled the rest of his body through.
Seizing an opportunity, I made my move as the crowd pushed behind me and then something happened. I must have turned back to look for my wife and son when my left foot suddenly slipped and fell into the gap between the train and platform. You know that little dark space we always look at when we step over the threshold? Well in the Philippines that little dark space must have been the size of a foot because down I went. My whole body fell over backward and my head barely missed slamming against the concrete platform. In retrospect I can see how people get trampled to death now. The crowd continued around me as Noah and Nikki rushed to my side. I wanted to say to them as Gandalf said while hanging on a ledge of rock bridge with his leg being pulled down by a whip from the underworld demon the Balrog in the Fellowship of the Ring, "Fly you fools! For God sakes, save yourselves." (I added the later)
 |
| "Fly you fools!" |
"I'm okay," I tried to reassure them as I limped over to a bench and sat down shaking. I stretched out my leg to take stock of the damage. A large scrape ran down from my kneecap and was bleeding a little but there was no meat hanging off. With that I breathed a deep sigh of relief. Together we left the platform and made straight for a pharmacy where Noah had the presence of mind to ask for ice as I bought iodine and bandages. I thought the most prudent thing would be to disinfect it as soon as possible. God only knows what grows on a train platform in the Philippines. Thoughts of third world amputations with rusty saws flashed through my mind.
The LRT in the Philippines hasn't conquered me but I will most certainly mind that gap the next time I am there. I also think I will assume a linebacker stance and blow through anyone standing and blocking the center of the door.
From the ultra modern high speed rails of China to the haphazardly developing light rail systems being constructed in the Philippines I have to say, at least they are all doing something. They are constructing systems that will take them into the future. America must start taking a longer term perspective. When our grandparents generation built the roads, railways and sewers that we rely on today they planned not just for their lifetimes but those that followed. If we as a nation don't start to focus on these things some day we will wake up and find ourselves living in a dilapidated and antiquated society. This is an area where government must act. It is far larger then any private business and the cost benefit analysis is much more complex. Everything in life is not a simple bottom of the line calculation. Since when did sewers make money but we all need them. Highways in America are incredibly subsidized when it comes to maintenance and construction costs but we all drive on them. For years our neighbors in the East looked toward America for a developmental example. Perhaps now it is time for us to look toward the East for a similar example in how to prepare for tomorrow more than today.
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