The Student Beep Card Experience
The LRT-1 is my main mode of transportation going to my university and going back home. It is because the LRT is the fastest way of transport compared to UV Express vans and jeepneys that are always stuck in traffic. I also hate the smell of the air conditioners inside UV vans (those little christmas trees also used in taxis) and the musk going out of jeepney mufflers.
Of course, to ride the train, I need to buy a ticket. In the LRT and other railway systems in Manila, you can buy single journey tickets or SJT. By its name, you will just pay for one journey and you need to surrender the ticket before leaving the station. There are discounted SJTs for senior citizens (people aged 60 and above), persons with disabilities, and students. The 20% discount was good but the process of availing is very tedious. You will fall in a long line especially during rush hours, you need to fill out a form, show your ID, and pay. For students, time counts with schedules and deadlines. This trade-off makes students like me not avail the discounted SJT.
However, there is another way of riding the train: the blue stored value cards branded as beep. Think of it as the Suica and Pasmo cards in Tokyo. The cards are reloadable so you can pay once and skip long lines in ticketing stations. The regular beep cards are also transferable. You can buy beep cards in every train station (although train stations have limited stocks) and online. Concessionary beep cards (the white-colored ones) that honors the 20% discount are just available for senior citizens and persons with disabilities. Unlike the regular beep cards, the concessionary ones need registration and are non-transferable. But the regular beep cards are just fine for us during our first year. Especially when stocks are limited, it's like gold.
Then one policy shakes everything.
This year, the Department of Transportation raised the discount on SJTs up to 50%. This became a financial relief for students as you can ride back and forth for a price of only one. Now, the lines are longer. Literally. Every student avails the 50% discount no matter the line. At Central Terminal, where the station is located between different universities, the line looks like a maze or a snake game. This policy leads to other changes in railway transportation. Remember the forms students needed to fill out in availing the discount? The forms were discarded and you just need to present your IDs. Security is also upgraded from baggage scanners to metal detectors with screens to make the lines faster and make it easier to enter the station.
Now, another policy shakes up everything. Remember the white concessionary beep cards that are available only for seniors and PWDs? The 50% discount is now applied to those cards. And now, students can register for one. There is also a new trick. Before, availing for the concessionary beep cards lasts for two weeks: you need to fill out a form and wait for days before you can claim the card. Now, staff from the company who makes beep cards are now available in every station so you can buy one at the same time. You know what that means. Another long line.
My first attempt in availing the student beep card was on its first release, September 20. I entered the station at 12:00 NN, and I'm still in line at 4:00 PM. There were delays: the lines were unorganized, the cards ran out of stock and we needed to wait for a long time to have a new batch of cards available, and there were so many people trying to skip the line. Unfortunately, I was unable to buy one that day. I need to go to an event and I'll be late if I wait for it.
On my second attempt, September 25, I just went out of my home just to get that card. I went to the station at 10:00 AM and successfully got a hold on that white beep card for myself. And my travels definitely became better. I do not have to worry about falling in line again, I just need to load it once, and my travel time becomes significantly less.
Of course, there are still flaws in the LRT and the beep card. Ever since new stations on the south of the system were opened, trains have been arriving very late. The beep card may be interoperable in the three railway stations in Manila and other buses, beep cards are still not widely used in different transport systems and stores unlike Pasmo and Suica which can be used almost anywhere in Tokyo. Commuters and consumers still deserve better. However, in a span of months, the 50% discount to the release of the student beep cards is a huge development.