Manila is trying to fix its noxious traffic. That's bad news for trolley boys and jeepneys
MANILA, Philippines - The distance is less than two miles. But commuting by car or bus across the murky Pasig River in the heart of this capital city can be a mind-numbing, hourlong exercise in breathing fumes.
Alfred "Betong" Mendez can cut that commute to two minutes. For about 40 cents, anyone can climb onto his open-air cart - known here as a trolley - to be hand-pushed across the river using a milelong shortcut: an active rail line.
Riders have to put up with flies, fetid trash along the tracks and the threat of being sideswiped by a train on the adjacent rails - or worse, stuck in the middle of a narrow bridge with a diesel locomotive barreling toward them. But given the alternative, hundreds of commuters take the
