Public Projects: Paranaque Interchange Terminal (PITX)



One of the things that I have envied from our travel to KL a few years back was how surprised I was in their bus hub. It was very neat, even better than most of our domestic airports. Comparatively, our bus stops are even worse than that: dingy, inefficient, lack of everything: seats, clean working bathrooms and capable staff. I remembered we found ourselves on a bus terminal at a certain province asking which bus to take to where. Each guy we ask all have various answers to where. We spent a whole lot of time running around finding which is the correct one! It's not even an isolated thing! It's a common problem with our bus terminals you'd rarely get correct information. This could be an issue as well when you try to visit Cavite, there's so many buses it's daunting which to take especially if you barely have a minute to ask along EDSA. I'm glad I lived there all my life so I know when the bus driver is just lying so you'd take the next bus instead of telling you outright that they don't like your business because your drop off is just near. So when talks about a bus hub being built for Cavite commuters started floating around, I got really excited. I would have no need to stand on a Jasper bus to and fro anymore!



I was able to try out PITX (around 3x) early this year but was only able to take rides both ways just this last Sunday. It's still hard to find a bus with the PITX signboard from Boni! I probably waited for 30 minutes, and by then it was only chance when I read a bond paper signage at the window in front. It really was just pure luck because I was left by the Cavite bus I attempted to take that was already full. I see there are some buses that doesn't have the PITX signage but I don't want to take chances in taking a bus that could easily forgo PITX if they feel like it. 

The process was easy, you just need to tell them of your location at the ticket booth and they would give you the nearest schedule that could take you wherever that is. Said tickets have the docking bay, seat numbers and the departure time and payments can be made at the bus. Maybe in the future seat numbers would be strictly followed because for now there is no way to find out where you get to sit because seats don't have numbers at all! I hope other non-Cavite buses follow suit because it would definitely help a lot of tourists who would like to visit neighboring provinces and have just landed at NAIA. There are no shady barkers nor non essentials hanging around here. 

Buses leave on time, even a minute before because as I've witnessed each dock have a timer that counts down and flags them as overstaying if parked for too long. This is also good training for us Filipinos to make it on time on our scheduled bus. 



Commuting back to the Metro, there's an abundance of Cavite buses stopping at PITX it wasn't that hard for me to catch one nowadays. Getting metro buses is easy from there too, because almost all buses have the same routes anyway, especially if your drop off is just along EDSA. The convenience for me that you don't need to run out in the open rain or shine is commendable. And unlike Cavite buses, there's no need to get a ticket. At the back, you have an abundance of taxis, E-jeeps, traditional jeeps and UVs plying various routes. 

Aircon works, bathrooms are clean and chairs are readily available everywhere. Their staff are helpful as well. Provisions for shops are already in place and I bet it would attract more people once it's 100% operational. Offices are said to be upstairs, adding more people who could become future commuters of the hub. I somehow hope they could also add unique bargain shops you could only find in Divisoria. It would be a huge crowd attraction until all buses would find the effort going to PITX profitable. And if what I heard was true, it could also be a new stop for the proposed LRT expansion to the province of Cavite. Granted that for now doing two buses instead of just one is a bit expensive (around 10 PHP increase one way for me) but hopefully it will grow less over time and maybe we'd get so used to it, we'd rather have more bus hubs than wait for them anywhere, running and shoving other people just to get on one. 

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