Unfriendly to seniors

I am a senior citizen and I frequently use public transport, including the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT). In most of their stations, the elevators and escalators are defective. And in the few working escalators and elevators, which are unmanned, we have to fight with able-bodied, younger commuters, including men, for space.

In other stations, especially the LRT Line 2 (Recto to Santolan), I have to show my senior citizen IDs to the guards so they would allow me to use the elevators. LRT 2 ticket vending machines are also outdated. The machines won’t accept new coins, hence the long queues at the ticketing windows; some stations have no priority lanes for senior citizens and the disabled.

I wrote the LRT management in November of last year about this concern. It assured me that all efforts are being made to secure spare parts for defective escalators/elevators and would have the ticket machines calibrated. Nothing has improved since their reply four months ago.

—TESS S. AUSTRIA,

tessaustria@yahoo.com