How would London have coped had all its buses, tubes, trains and taxis been ordered off the road for the Covid lockdown? That is what happened in the Philippines last year. SIMON CLARK explains its impact on everyday life and on plans for massive transport investment.
Imagine if the Covid-19 pandemic had brought all public transport in the UK to an abrupt halt last March without any prior warning, instead of being scaled down in response to increasingly tightening controls on what we could or could not do outside our homes.
That is what happened for over two months in Metro Manila, the capital city region of the Philippines, a conurbation of 16 cities and a municipality that is home to an estimated 14million. Nearly one-and-a-half times the population of London is packed into an area about 40% the size of the City of London and the 32 boroughs.
In September 2019 Buses, I described the country’s Jeepneys — Jeep-derived people carriers — that form a vital, if chaotic part of Metro Manila’s public transport.
All public transport continued to operate for two days after President Rodrigo Duterte quarantined Metro Manila on 15 March, with social distancing measures enforced by police armed with temperature guns.
