Some stand-up comedy for the MRT

Riding the MRT has been a source of immense childlike joy for me. It reminds me so much of the horror train from our annual fair back in grade school. Sans the tunnel of G.I. sheets painted with poor renderings of manananggals, kapres, and tikbalangs, the MRT is the same as the good ol’ horror train. As for the “Gabi ng Lagim” wolf cries, these are incidentally replaced with the screeching sounds from the trains’ doors, rusty brakes, and the occasional quarrels among disgruntled passengers.

Ah, the MRT truly is a time machine worthy of Doc’s train in Back to the Future 3: It can send you to the past or straight to your death in the future. Just to illustrate how old these trains actually are, the warning lights on top of its doorways are marked “Made in Czechoslovakia”—a country that has been out of existence for 21 years now. It is, indeed, strange, when the train was only finished during President Estrada’s time (15 years ago to be exact). As for its capability to fast forward through time, there is no better image than the train shooting off its track, exploding out of the station’s fence, and driving into EDSA concrete. Who would’ve thought we’d be the first to make a train that transforms into a coach, capable of driving on roads?