How to Lower Your MRT or LRT Expenses
Game Objective The objective of the game is to have a stored value card with a Php 2 or Php 1 ending balance, and that’s where the savings will come from- the bonus ride.
Maximum Savings Under the assumption that you were able to reach Php 1, the maximum savings you can reach will be Php 14 per stored value card, since the highest fare is Php 15.
Why You Need More Than 1 Card That’s why at some point you’re going to need TWO stored value cards, because you need to sometimes hold off from using a card, like, if I have a Php 15 card, I’ll hold off from using it until I make a Php 14 or Php 13 ride, so that I’ll end up with the game objective of a Php 1 or 2 ending balance.
Marking the Current Balance And, having two cards means constantly estimating how much your fare is so that you can use the right card. This is where marking the current balance will really come in handy.
For example, if I have to make a Php 10 ride, and I have two cards- a Php 47 and a Php 30, then I’ll probably choose to use the Php 47 card, because if I use the Php 30 the current balance will be Php 20, so even if I make a Php 15 ride I’ll end up with an ending balance of Php 5, not the Php 1 or 2 objective.
Traveling Irregularly The condition of traveling irregularly simply means not going to and from the same station on a daily basis, because then the factor of different fares is removed from the formula. For example, if you travel to and from work alighting at the North EDSA and Ayala stations everyday using your stored value card, then you do NOT need to do this MO because you’ll know already your ending balance.