Thursday, March 11, 2010





I am a huge fan of transportation and whenever my feet lands on another nation's soil I cant help but check out their transportation systems. One common denominator in all the places I've been to is the presence of a good railroad system. Rails are harbingers of progress and prosperity that allow easy access to natural resources and manpower. Sadly in the Philippines, progress is centralized mainly in the cities.

Progress needs to be distributed out to the countryside by and for the people under conditions of equality, I refer to this concept as the democratization of progress. And what better and cheaper way to democratize progress than to ship progress out of the cities and into the countryside using rails, steel wheels on steel rails in an intimate kiss of power, speed and adhesion.

Since the 1970's, rail transportation has been largely neglected, but over the past decade the amount of progress in the railroad sector has stepped up year by year. We have the MRT, the Purple line, North and Southrail, the purchase of new DMU's for PNR and other projects. My train loving heart leaps with joy at the prospect of riding a rail network that we can be proud of. But most of all I am hopeful that the increase in rail mileage also means an increase in progress out in the countryside, progress that can be felt by everyman.