Manila LRT - Like being on an African slave ship but probably not as bad.

When I first arrived in Manila, took the shuttle bus from the airport arrival terminal to the Taft Avenue LRT station about 3km away (as the crow flies). The ride took around 30 minutes in total. I had been told numerous times that traffic in Manila was incredibly bad and now I got to experience it for myself.

It was rainy night and the shuttle bus reached the LRT station. I found myself in what felt like the Chinatown scene off Blade Runner 2049. 

I took this using my phone camera. (It's not that good)

I've always been a huge fan of all the MRT & LRT systems in every city I've visited. They are a cheap, intuitive, (usually) and fast way of getting around large urban environments. I was eager to hop into the LRT line and whizz away across kilometers of Metro Manila without having to wait in traffic.

Once I finally made my way to Taft Avenue station I was quite shocked at the entire setup of the system. Security scanners and X-rays at all entrances, winding queues of people waiting in line for the human operated ticketing booths. No station or route map in sight.
'Good God, this is some 1950's shit going on here' I thought to myself.

 I unloaded my two bags onto the X-ray scanner conveyor belt; the plastic bag with my snorkel fell out from my bag and came out seperately.
"What's this?" The security guard inquired, seeing a black tube sticking out of the plastic bag.
"It's a snorkel" I replied.
"Oh I thought it was a sniper" I heard her say quietly to her colleague.

Interesting Digression: Upon a quick glance, my black and slightly curved snorkel resembles either a gun barrell or a dildo. As of yet no one has called me out for openly carrying a black dildo around with me but I have been questioned on whether it is a gun on several occasions by security.

Disembarking passengers are bottlenecked by
a lack of exit turnstiles. 

 After passing the ticketing booth, I made my towards the platform where I joined what felt like 1/5 of Manila's population. The number of people was so great that there wasn't actually enough room on the platform and blob-like queue extended up the stairs onto the upper level. In my latter experiences I would come to find that the system is often run so much beyond it's initial capacity that even during hours typically regarded as 'off-peak', the carriages are filled to what would by Singapore standards would be considered maximum capacity.
The carriage was loaded with people to the point where my arms were locked in place by my sides and it was no longer necessary to stabilise myself as there was no room for any kind of movement - intentional or unintentional.

 If you were wondering what the LRT system is like in Manila, it's basically the ghetto version of the Indonesian LRT in Jakarta, and if you haven't ever been on the LRT in Jakarta, it's basically the ghetto version of the Singapore MRT.  If I could ever sum up what the Manila LRT system is like in a metaphor, I would say it's like 3 grown men sitting on a 125cc motor scooter - and you're the guy sitting in the middle. If you have no idea what I'm talking about then clearly you haven't spent enough time in south east asia.

In addition to the Manilla LRT there is the Philippine National Railway Commuter Line (PNR).  I don't want to talk about it if that's any indication on how highly I regard it.  (I've actually opted to discard my ticket and walk back to the hostel on one occasion.)

Don't get me started on the Philippine National Railway (PNR) commuter train