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The story
History
Manila Railroad
The origins of the Philippine National Railways can be traced to Edmund Sykes's concession, the Manila Railway Company, Limited. Sykes was granted concession rights by the Spanish government to construct a rail line from Manila to Dagupan on June 1, 1887. The line opened as the Ferrocarril de Manila a Dagupan on November 24, 1892, and the Manila Railway Company was formally incorporated in Manila and London. The Ferrocarril de Manila a Dagupan would eventually become the North Main Line, while services to Southern Luzon under the South Main Line would be completed by 1937.
The Manila Railway was later renamed the Manila Railroad Company in 1906 and became a state-owned enterprise in 1916. By 1923, the MRR elected José Paez as its first Filipino general manager. By 1939, the MRR had 1,140 kilometers (710 mi) of track throughout Luzon. However, the MRR's network and fleet was destroyed during World War II. With most of the railroads rebuilt by the 1950s, the MRR initiated its transition from steam to diesel power. Flagship services with steam ended on August 12, 1956, while regular services ended in 1963. Not long after, the Manila Railroad was reorganized into the Philippine National Railways.
Creation of the PNR and later decline
The Philippine National Railways was created in 1964 through the Republic Act 4156 during the presidency of Diosdado Macapagal. According to the PNR's website, the agency experienced its heyday during its early years in the 1960s and early 1970s, as it served thousands of daily riders in its system and had an expansive commuter rail network in and out of Metro Manila.
The PNR later suffered from a multitude of reasons which contributed to its decline, including natural disasters and a lack of support from the government. Government funding during the 1970s were shifted to road-based infrastructure such as highways. On July 23, 1979, President Ferdinand Marcos issued Executive Order No. 546, which designated the Philippine National Railways as an attached agency of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, now the Department of Transportation (DOTr). However, it did not prevent the agency from suffering heavy losses. In 1983, underfunding resulted in more cutting of services and the layoff of 1,000 employees which resulted in protests the following year.
The decline of the railway became evident as sections of North Main Line closed in stages. In 1984, services were cut short to Paniqui, Tarlac due to a bridge collapse. Services were then again cut short to Caloocan in 1988 during the term of President Corazon Aquino. However, commuter services were briefly extended to Malolos starting in 1990 under the Metrotren project and later closed in 1997. When Fidel V. Ramos succeeded Aquino, he decided to rehabilitate the South Main Line from Tutuban to Legaspi, and appointed Jose B. Dado as the new PNR general manager. A railway system running from Manila to Clark was also set to be constructed in the 1990s, when Ramos signed a memorandum of agreement with Juan Carlos I of Spain for its construction in September 1994. Another project, called the Manila–Calabarzon Express, sought to rehabilitate the south commuter line in Manila and construct spur lines. However, the two projects were not implemented, with the Clark railway project cancelled due to disagreement on the source of funding.
Rehabilitation
The government under the administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo actively pursued the rehabilitation of the Philippine National Railways through various investments and projects designed to revive Philippine rail transport, despite the numerous problems involved. This encompassed three major projects: Northrail, Southrail, and the Northrail–Southrail Linkage, which was designed to connect the two systems. The 320-kilometer (200-mile) Northrail project aimed to revive the North Main Line from Caloocan to San Fernando, La Union. The initial phase involved the upgrading of the existing single track to an elevated dual-track system, converting the rail gauge from narrow gauge to standard gauge, and linking Manila to Malolos in Bulacan and further on to Angeles City, Clark Special Economic Zone, Clark International Airport. Although the project was under the North Luzon Railways Corporation (NLRC), the Northrail project aimed to utilize the existing right of way of the North Main Line for most of its route. The Southrail project, conceptualized when the PNR and Daewoo conducted a feasibility study, involved the rehabilitation of the entire South Main Line from Calamba to Lucena, and later to Legazpi, Albay, with a new extension to Matnog. The linkage project aimed to connect the two, and ensure compatibility of the signaling and communication systems of the two lines while retaining the rail gauge as narrow gauge despite the planned gauge conversion.
On September 14, 2002, a memorandum of understanding was signed by NLRC and China National Machinery and Equipment Group (CNMEG) for the Northrail project. The Northrail project was contracted out by the Arroyo administration in 2003 to China National Machinery and Equipment Corporation (CNMEC) for an original cost of $421 million. This project was estimated to cost around US$500 million, with China offering to provide some US$400 million in concessionary financing. Early construction began in 2006. However, the project would soon be plagued by a series of irregularities involving the foreign contractor, leading to repeated halts and restarts of the project; the cost of the railway later surged to US$2 billion.
On July 14, 2009, President Arroyo presided over the launch of new diesel multiple units from Hyundai Rotem. This coincided with PNR's rebranding under a new brand name, PNR Filtrack, although the succeeding administration decided to revert these changes. While plans for Southrail were not fully realized, the initial phase of the linkage project from Caloocan to Alabang, financed by the Export–Import Bank of Korea and the Korean Economic Development Cooperation Fund, was completed in 2010. Total reconstruction of rail bridges and tracks, including replacement of the current 35-kilogram (77-pound) track with newer 50-kilogram (110-pound) tracks and the refurbishing of stations, were part of the rehabilitation and expansion process.
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Northrail was finally cancelled in 2011 by President Benigno Aquino III on lingering legal issues and corruption allegations. Nevertheless, rehabilitation of the railway continued, with the San Cristobal bridge in Calamba, Laguna being rebuilt in May 2011. The Bicol Express train service was inaugurated on June 29, with a maiden voyage between Manila and Naga, Camarines Sur plus a return trip back to the terminus on July 1. This inaugural trip was marred by the collapse of the embankment at Malaguico, Sipocot. It was discovered before the train passed through and was repaired. The restored Bicol Express intercity service was offered on a daily basis, running mostly during nighttime. Following a derailment incident, the Bicol Express service was indefinitely suspended on October 26, 2012, leaving only the Metro Commuter Line in operation.
Current developments
Despite attempts to restart and reconfigure the Northrail project, by 2015, it was replaced by a new project that sought to revitalize the PNR, called the North–South Railway Project (NSRP), was approved by the government. It involved two lines, NSRP North and South. The north line is analogous to the existing North Main Line; its first phase is the North–South Commuter Railway (NSCR), a 37-kilometer (23-mile), electrified narrow gauge commuter railway from Tutuban to Malolos funded through official development assistance (ODA) from Japan. The second phase entailed the rebuilding of the line's long-haul services to La Union. Meanwhile, the south line included the reconstruction of the existing Metro Commuter line from Tutuban to Calamba as well as the rehabilitation of the South Main Line with an extension up to Matnog, Sorsogon and a branch line from Calamba to Batangas. The latter phase of the north line, as well as the entire south line, were to be funded through a public–private partnership (PPP) scheme.
These plans would later be modified by the succeeding government under President Rodrigo Duterte. The NSCR was extended to New Clark City. It was also expanded to include the reconstruction of the Metro Commuter line, which was now also to be financed through ODA from Japan. Meanwhile, the planned long-haul portion of the south line was reconstituted as the South Long Haul project, which would involve the reconstruction of the South Main Line. It was to be funded by China, although this was later withdrawn after several delays and a slow negotiation process with the Chinese government. Furthermore, all new railway lines were now to be constructed using standard gauge, as opposed to the narrow gauge that is currently in use by PNR.
After nearly 20 years, PNR reopened the Metro North Commuter line, and launched the Caloocan–Dela Rosa shuttle line, on August 1, 2018. This would be followed by a steady expansion and reintroduction of rail services to the north, currently reaching to Malabon, which has not seen rail activity for nearly 20 years. A plan to reactivate the Carmona line was bared as well, and the revival of cargo rail from Port Area, Manila to Laguna is now being planned.
On November 16, 2018, PNR became a provisional member of International Union of Railways. On June 14, 2019, PNR became ISO 9001-certified (ISO 9001:2015) for railway repair, rehabilitation, restoration and maintenance, train control and rolling stock maintenance, station operation and other related services. The certification was announced on October 2, 2019.
On February 16, 2023, the Department of Transportation announced a temporary suspension of operations of the PNR system for five years to give way for the construction of the NSCR. Transport Undersecretary for Railways Cesar Chavez said that the temporary suspension would save the government ₱15 billion while construction on the new railway line is ongoing. The Alabang–Calamba segment was the first to be closed on July 2, while the Tutuban–Alabang segment followed suit on March 28, 2024. New PUV franchises traversing parallel the PNR route were issued to compensate for the five-year closure. Services in the Bicol Region were expanded on December 23, 2023.
Steam locomotive era (1892–1954)
There were no available colored images of Manila-Dagupan Railway and the Manila Railroad Company's rolling stock before the war so the color scheme of the carriages remains unknown. However, based on the surviving locomotives, the steam locomotives owned by the two companies sported a black-only livery like most of the notable American steam engines.
From Wikipedia’s article on Philippine National Railways, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4