That's a good question and one of the things I'm proud of, to be perfectly honest.
In 1984, Manila had an elevated LRT system that was built in Belgium, I think. In 1994, we had a team of people from Japan—which the Japanese funded—and from Britain, and the Philippines. I was the project manager. The existing system was old fashioned and without air conditioning. After some thought I went to see the Department of Transportation and Communications and discussed what I thought should be done. My recommendations included air conditioning of the system, as well as higher elevation—to achieve more light on the roads and sidewalks, and so that the concourses were underneath the stations instead of next to the actual platforms, which creates a major problem. Also, I recommended a driverless heavy-rail system, which was somewhat rare in Europe then, but they accepted it and the design went through.
There was a pause between the actual finish of the design and the awarding of the contracts for construction of the various phases. By that time I was in Bangkok doing a study.