The Philippines is on track to complete five major railways projects, including the country’s first underground rail system, the Metro Manila Subway project (MMSP).
Jaime Bautista, secretary of the Department of Transportation, made this assurance in line with the visit over the weekend of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who has long supported the Philippines’ ambitious rail expansion.
Through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Philippines is one of the top beneficiaries of official development assistance from Japan, a country with 150 years of experience in rail development, 30,000 kilometers of rail lines, and 25 billion riders a year.
“The Philippine railways sector has been a recipient of billions of pesos in Japanese aid. PM Kishida, long before he was prime minister, has been instrumental in tunneling Japanese assistance to the country’s ambitious rail expansion,” Bautista said.
About nine Philippine big-ticket transport projects —two aviation, two maritime, five railways — are being built or will be delivered on the back of 1.315- trillion yen worth of Japanese aid.
The five railway projects are the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension, LRT Line 2 East Extension, MRT Line 3 rehabilitation and maintenance, North-South Commuter Rail (NSCR) and MMSP.
On Saturday, November 4, Kishida visited the MMSP depot site and Philippine Railways Institute (PRI) train simulator in Valenzuela City and saw the railway’s construction progress.
During the visit, Bautista showed the launching shaft of the subway’s tunnel boring machine in its depot in Valenzuela City.
The transport chief cited the Metro Manila Subway as the “crown jewel” of mass transport, which aims to upgrade the country’s transport sector to global standards and improve connectivity and mobility throughout the metropolis.
“The subway will improve the mobility of passengers and inter-city connectivity,” Bautista said.
At the depot, construction is ongoing for the 17,500 square meter PRI building which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025, according to DOTr.
The PRI train simulators will complement the training and development aspects of railway infrastructure projects in the country including the much-awaited Metro Manila Subway in the coming years.
Construction is ongoing for the 33-kilometer, 17-station subway that will stretch from Valenzuela City to Paranaque City, with a spur line to Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 in Pasay City.
Once completed, the underground rail system is expected to reduce travel time between Valenzuela City and Pasay City from 1 hour and 30 minutes to 35 minutes and will service over 500,000 passengers daily.
Meanwhile, the partial operation of LRT 1 Cavite Extension project is scheduled in third quarter of next year, with the opening of the first five stations. MRT 3’s rehabilitation project has been completed without any disruption to its operations.
The country’s longest rail line, the 147-kilometer-long NSCR, is undergoing full-scale construction from Clark to Calamba. Total project cost stands at P873.62 billion, funding sourced from the Asian Development Bank and JICA.