EDITORIAL - Monorail, P10. Kiddie train, P40

A consortium planning to put up a monorail system in Cebu has announced that its fares would be pegged at P10 for any ride to and from any of its intended 14 stations. Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. Do you know how much a ride costs on those kiddie trains inside malls? It is P40! That is four times what the monorail proponent plans to collect. And these kiddie trains do not even need any tracks to run on.

The problem with the P10 monorail fare proposal is that it tends to take Cebuanos for a ride – on a train without brakes. As Cebuanos would say it in their own language: "Wala na intawon ron tag diyes pesos Dodong oy." There is practically nothing you can get for P10 these days. So if someone says you can ride a monorail for P10, better beware. Things that sound too good to be true often are.

Still the proponent insists it can be done because there are a 101 creative ways to make money than just relying on government to subsidize fares. Ahh, there's the rub. So the fare is not going to be just P10. It will be more, only that there will be a 101 ways to make enough money to bring the fare down to just P10. But even that proposition is rather tacky. What if none of the 101 ways flies?

The proposed P10 fare is not really P10. That much is clear. It could never be that much only. It is that much only because the proponent plans to make money elsewhere. In other words, the P10 fare hinges on the outcome of other ventures the proponent consortium hopes to undertake, not just to make money for itself, but, more importantly, to keep the P10 fare P10.

In other words, the P10 proposed monorail fare is hostage to the success or failure of other ventures. And since there are a 101 creative ways the consortium hopes to make money out of it, maybe it should be open and transparent about what these 101 creative ways are. Since the fate of the P10 monorail fare depends squarely on these 101 creative ways, the consortium must tell the riding public what they are ahead of time.

A safe guess is that there are not really that many creative ways to make money. In fact, there could only be one way to make money – just get the monorail project approved. As to the P10 fare, the thing will take care of itself over time. It is having the proposal approved that is important. That is why P10 was proposed. If anybody can promise the moon, why not a measly P10?