Manila trip report – 2022 edition

Beginning the mammoth task of reporting on transport and urban development in the megacity of Metro Manila.

This was my first time back in Manila since starting Future Southeast Asia. Not having a Future Manila page on this site was a glaring omission for a site about urban development in Southeast Asia.

Manila is one of the biggest cities in the world. It’s a city made up of multiple cities, so picking where to start was an overwhelming choice.

This trip became easier when I resigned myself to the fact that I would not be able to cover everything on one trip. Instead of covering the 16 cities and 1 municipality that comprise Metro Manila, I limited myself to covering the two areas I was staying in (Manila and Makati). I also rode every metro rail line and visited what will be the central railway station.

To get a better understanding of the city, I made a plan to ride every metro line and try every interchange. If you are new to Future Southeast Asia, I have been writing about the shoddy metro interchanges in Bangkok. Well, the metro interchanges in Manila make Bangkok look organised. I also saw some of the most modern streetscapes in Southeast Asia. It’s a gigantic, messy, complicated city, and I already can’t wait to go back.

I’ve now started a Future Manila page, which covers major transport and urban development projects in Metro Manila. I will keep adding to this over time and make updated notes in the weekly newsletter.

The next section is my trip report for Manila, covering transport and urban development issues. This is for paid subscribers, who fund these future city guides.

Manila Urban Rail Transit

Manila has three metro lines and a remnant of the south long-distance railway that acts as a commuter line. A city the size of Metro Manila (about 28 million people) should aim to have a metro system like the Seoul Capital Area (26 million people). The Seoul Metropolitan Subway consists of 23 lines, including rapid transit, light metro, commuter rail and people mover lines.

I would also settle for a system like Tokyo, which was the city that Duturte invoked when laying out his vision for a fully-functioning metro system. He also said that Manila would be a dead city in 25 years, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Any megacity in East Asia would be a good model for Manila to emulate to tame its awful traffic situation.

I was impressed that there are some established urban railways here. The megacity of Ho Chi Minh City is my home base, where there is exactly 0km of urban railways, so I am easily impressed, I suppose. I arrived in Manila and thought, “Wow, you guys have a metro system!”

When I say metro lines, that is a catch-all phrase for an urban rail transit line. Manila has two light rail transit (LRT) lines and a mass rapid transit (MRT) line. They all do the same thing, though, so only train nerds are going to differentiate the points that make them an LRT or MRT.

Like Bangkok, the lines are operated by different companies and not under a unified brand. They are referred to by their system type (LRT or MRT) and not “Manila Metro” (for example), which would be confusing, as the city is also known as Metro Manila.

On my first trip, I caught LRT1 at 2.45 pm on a weekday, and it was packed. This line is an absolute workhorse, and I am glad I didn’t go during peak hour.

I used the other lines on the weekend, and it was a much better experience. I got LRT1 again to the northern end of the line at Roosevelt Station. LRT1 is eventually going to terminate one stop away at the new North Triangle Station. I have already written about this station, which is also known as the Unified Grand Central Station. LRT1 will interchange with MRT3, and it will also be the interchange for the future MRT7 line and the Metro Manila Subway.

The station was supposed to be finished by now, but it is now expected to be completed by mid-2023. This is one of the bad interchanges that is being fixed up, so I look forward to seeing what it looks like and how easy it will be to interchange from LRT1 to MRT3.

From North Avenue, I got MRT3 to Araneta Center-Cubao Station. The MRT carriages are distinctly different to the light rail carriages and feel more like a metro railway (ok, I guess I am one of those train nerds).

MRT3 crosses the path of LRT2, which you can see from the train.

Unfortunately, there is no interchange here, and to their credit, they don’t even try to pretend it is an interchange station on the map. The two metro stations are on two different sides of a big urban development area, with a mall in the middle. I walked through the mall, where some signs pointed the way to the station. If you did this every day, you would have an optimal walking route worked out.

I passed a display for a new apartment block that is going up next to the mall, and this model shows the absurdity of the unlinked metro system. Here you can see the two metro stations. What a shame they haven’t left space for a dedicated walkway, but then that would mean no foot traffic through the mall.

From here, I got the LRT2 train back to the western end of the line, which is near LRT1 but not technically an interchange. There is at least a dedicated walking path that you can follow to get from LRT2 to LRT1.

LRT2 will eventually be extended west to Tutuban Station (the long-distance railway station). You can see the stub of the line west of Recto that will be extended in the future.

Malate

I stayed in the district of Malate in Manila City for the first half of my trip. Malate was a well-to-do neighbourhood in the early 20th century, with grand mansions along Manila Bay. Much of the city’s heritage structures were lost in the Battle of Manila, and the city hasn’t done a good job of saving what is left.

Malate should be like the Miami Beach of Manila. Not that there is a nice beach here, but it has a similar street structure of gridded roads that run alongside the coast. It was a run-down area when I last visited 10 years ago. I was expecting that the area would have improved over the last decade, as similar neighbourhoods have done around Southeast Asia. It has changed, but not in ways that I expected. The big difference is the proliferation of 50+ floor apartment towers,

There are blocks of land that have been cleared with signage for more apartment towers to come.

I went by one apartment tower named Pearl of the Orient. I had forgotten that Manila used to be called this. Manila was one of several cities that claimed the title of Pearl of the Orient.

Like Saigon, the days of being the Pearl of the Orient are far behind it as it now hurtles towards a name more appropriate for an urbanised 21st-century Southeast Asia city (new title suggestions are welcome!)

I thought that there were more mansions here, but I didn’t record much about my last trip, so maybe my mind is remembering Manila differently. I walked towards a giant construction site to get the name of the building, and upon looking it up later, I found this article that lamented the loss of a historic apartment block.

On the ground, the buildings are in bad shape, as if they are just waiting to be bought out for the next tower to go up. There are no cool cafes in this area, which an area like this should have.

Makati

Makati is one of the 16 cities that make up Metro Manila, and it has more skyscrapers than any other city within Manila. It’s a name that frequently finds its way into my news feed, as it is a popular area for expats, so the combination of those factors made me pick Makati as my next place to stay.

When it came to moving camp from Malate, I was surprised to find that none of the metro lines pass through Makati. There is a plan, though, for a Makati subway system, which would be built within the city of Makati. This will connect to the new Metro Manila Subway. For now, I had to make do with a Grab Taxi.

There are parts of Makati that feel as modern as any city in East Asia. With wide tree-lined footpaths (with no motorbikes on them), it was a pleasure to walk around.

There are also a series of underpasses for the big intersections and an elevated walkway.

The big project going on here is the Park Central Towers.

As with any other city I cover in Southeast Asia, there are always some stalled or abandoned projects on the list. The tallest building in the Philippines was supposed to be The Stratford Residences at 400 metres high. That was scaled down to 250 metres, and now it is sitting half-finished.

Future Manila trips and publishing plans

Originally, I was meant to come here in April 2020, but that was obviously cancelled. I had credits with Cebu Pacific that needed to be used by December, so here I was in the middle of the festive season. I would have liked to spend a month there (and I will at some point), but with Christmas coming up, I decided to go back to be around people I know and avoid the Christmas travel rush in the Philippines. I will be back for a longer visit, including visiting some other cities.