August 10, 2013 - Last Aug 10, I experienced riding the city bus at the new Southwest Integrated Transport Terminal in Coastal mall, I already tried riding the bus here going home in Cavite and also drop by here via the bus and took a cab at the other side of the road.
I have never tried riding the city bus going to Manila, or going to Pasay MRT, I heard that there are bus now going to Fairview area, taking the Manila road passing Quirino and Lawton, that’s good news to us,but I’m not sure how many bus that are available bound to Fairview area that takes Manila road as their route. Most bus that I saw at the city bus terminal are ordinary bus or bus with no aircon, and most bus there are taking Leveriza-Ayala area going to the North, or buses that takes EDSA as their launch pad to scrap the pavement going to the North.
So I tasted that day taking the bus from the terminal and I felt the spell of hassle and inconvenience, but for other reasons, convenience still being felt well in other ways.
let me share to you my experience in photos.
This is the scene that I caught inside the bus.
We learned that buses are no longer allowed to drop off their passengers in the middle of the highway while the stop sign is active in coastal road. All passengers are allowed to go out of the bus at the SITT terminal only.
Many passenger got mad and demanded to be dropped off there, but the bus conductor told them about the jay walking rule, other people are starting to ask question about the owners of the coastal mall, who owns it, and who runs it. Why is it the MMDA and the local govt are so game to have a terminal there.
I remained seated and just wait til the bus reached the terminal.
Before entering the terminal, we encountered some heavy traffic, lots of buses are lining up to the entrance of the terminal and also we’re dodging outbound buses going out of the terminal, so I turned my timer and check how many minutes will I waste here in the new terminal.
I’m in a hurry that time, because my plan is to take the MRT and head to Antipolo City.
I need to beat the 1:30pm deadline and it was 11am when I arrived here Coastal area.
Same scenario as last time, many passengers are clueless on where to ride next, or where to go next? some old people are asking question to a MMDA staff standing nearby, they get tips from them on where to ride and where to go next.
The only badtrip moment here is that we are forced to walk on a muddy road here in Southwest Integrated Transport Terminal. You have to watch were you are going and you won’t like going to the office with a muddy pants and shoes.
Spotted a media interview nearby. The local media are monitoring the situation of the SITT terminal here everyday.
I rode a city bus going to EDSA, that’s the only bus I can count on, that bus will transport me from here to Pasay Taft MRT.
And according to my timer, I just wasted 15 minutes of waiting for the bus to take off.
Many passengers who rode the bus here are starting to be impatient, (one of them is me) bec. the bus starts to stall for a long time and wait til it get full of passengers. But then after some minutes it took off and started to circle back to the end of the terminal.
going to the back of the terminal, they have one entry and one exit there.. I just hope they have a separate entrance and exit for the bus.
Spotted a long line of bus outside the terminal. The bus conductor told me that those buses are lining up sine 3 hours ago. oh damn….
Then we went back from were we can from and I just wasted another 15 minutes before we got out of the area, there’s traffic build up from here and I can say that I’m running of time already.
Then I arrived in MRT station at 12nn.
So I have 1 1/2 hour travel time going to Antipolo.
But the good news is that I arrived in Antipolo at exact 1:30pm!
I took the MRT ride from Cubao to Santolan station and rode the jeep there going to Antipolo City.
So my note here is..if you plan to go to north side of the city, or planning to ride the MRT. Its best to set an advance one hour more for your travel plans, because the terminal stops and the travel to MRT EDSA will generate into one hour…or maybe more if Baclaran is clogged again with bus and jeepneys.
