MANILA, Philippines – Construction of the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) is proceeding full speed ahead, with the goal of finally completing a railway that stretches from New Clark City in Tarlac to Calamba City, Laguna.
The mega railway project is being built in three phases, with partial operations expected as early as 2027 and full completion by 2029.
All in all, the NSCR will cost around P870 billion, which will be funded through loan agreements with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Here’s what you need to know about the longest railway line in the country:
Stretching from Metro Manila to Bulacan, the Malolos-Tutuban portion has stations in the City of Manila, Valenzuela City, Caloocan City, Meycuayan City, Marilao, Bocaue, Balagtas, Guiguinto, and Malolos City. Here are the 10 stations being constructed:
This segment of the NSCR started construction the earliest and has the most progress. The Balagtas Station, for instance, is 95% complete as of July 18, 2024.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is also making the NSCR more accessible for persons with disabilities by adding elevators and escalators to the stations.
The train stations will also feature a polytetrafluoroethylene-coated glass fiber roofing membrane, which is supposed to keep the areas cooler and lessen maintenance costs. The translucent roof also lets in natural light rather than relying on electrical lights during the daytime.
Once completed, commuters from Tutuban can reach Malolos in approximately 35 minutes, down from 1 hour and 30 minutes.
The first P55.2-billion civil works contract package, held by the joint venture of Taisei and DMCI, is nearing the halfway completion point at 43.34% as of May 2024. This contract package covers the stations from Tutuban to Bocaue.
Meanwhile, the second P26.5-billion civil works contract package, awarded to Sumitomo-Mitsui Construction, is almost complete at 88.94% as of May 2024. This covers the construction of the Balagtas, Guiguinto, and Malolos stations.
Hitachi Rail has completed 8.15% of its P45.9-billion electromechanical systems and track works contract.
The trains for this segment of the NSCR will be provided by the joint venture of J-TREC and Sumitomo Corporation under a P12-billion contract package. This route will be serviced by 13 train sets with 8 cars each, with an expected ridership of 300,000 passengers per day.
Each 8-car train set has a maximum operating and design speed of 120 kilometers per hour. It has space for 384 seated passengers and 1,904 standing passengers. The train is also equipped with two air-conditioning units and four CCTV units per car.
The second phase covers a 51.2-kilometer portion of the railway that links New Clark City and the Clark International Airport to Malolos City, Bulacan. It covers the following eight stations:
Partial operations of the NSCR from the Clark International Airport to West Valenzuela Station could start as soon as December 2027, with the “worst-case scenario” being the first quarter of 2028, according to Transportation Undersecretary Jeremy Regino.
This portion of the NSCR will also have the first-ever “airport express train” that will connect Metro Manila to the Clark International Airport. A portion of the double cell box tunnel leading up to the airport has already been installed using the cut-and-cover method.
The DOTr said that once the airport express train is operational, passengers can get from Makati City to Clark in just one hour.
All five contract packages for this segment have already been awarded. This segment is being co-financed by JICA and the ADB.
The last phase of the NSCR expected to be completed is the 55-kilometer South Commuter Railway, which runs from Manila to Laguna. It has the following stations:
Like other parts of the NSCR, the South Commuter Railway will be built along the alignment of the old Philippine National Railways (PNR), which used to serve many of the stations listed above.
The PNR stopped operations last March 28 to allow for faster construction of the NSCR. According to the DOTr, halting the PNR will speed up the new mega railway’s construction by eight months, saving P15.18 billion in costs.
On July 13, 2023, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also witnessed the signing of three contract packages for the South Commuter Railway, which covers 14.9 kilometers of at-grade and railway viaduct structures.
On June 13, 2024, the DOTr also broke ground for the Banlic depot in Laguna, which serves the railway’s southern leg. The P16.9-billion project is expected to be completed in 2028.
Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said right-of-way issues could delay the NSCR project.
“This is one of the major problems. For us to be able to implement the project, we have to relocate informal settler families. There are almost 15,000 to 20,000 in the Pampanga and Bulacan areas, another 15,000 in Laguna and Cavite,” Bautista said during a July 8 meeting of the Monday Circle Financial Forum.
To address the problem, Bautista is tapping the interagency task force created by Marcos, which includes the DOTr, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Budget and Management, Department of Finance, and Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development. The task force handles right-of-way issues that affect the DOTr’s projects.
“The major issue is, of course, payment. Second is agreement by the owners on valuation,” Bautista said.
If the DOTr and the owners cannot agree on the valuation, then the government resorts to expropriation, which Bautista said is “costly and time-consuming.”
This is partly because of the bureaucracy around such issues. The only government agency that can handle expropriation cases is the Office of the Solicitor General. Bautista said there was only “a very limited number of lawyers assigned” to them, which means that obtaining a decision or even a schedule for a hearing can take much longer.
Fortunately, a bureaucratic problem can be met with a bureaucratic solution. The transportation secretary said the Supreme Court approved a recommendation to set up special courts for expropriation hearings to help speed up the process.
“There will be special courts in different regions, and this will help us solve the problem. So with that, we are very optimistic that we will still be able to finish the project by 2029,” Bautista said. – Rappler.com
