Is it full steam ahead for the Philippine railway system?

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is undertaking a major railway expansion program to improve connectivity and mobility and alleviate traffic congestion on roads. But it appears that rail works have not been moving at full steam as the government has planned, resulting in project delays.

A comparison made by The STAR between the initial targets and actual achievements showed that almost all railway projects are behind schedule.

The Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT-7) project, which began civil works in August 2016, should have been completed by this time based on the Department of Transportation (DOTr)’s target in its first year performance report covering the July 2016 to July 2017 period.

By end-2017, however, the DOTr adjusted the MRT-7 project’s completion target and is now “expected to be completed and operational by 2020.”

The latest update from the DOTr, however, show that the P75-billion rail project is expected to be ready for operation by the second quarter of 2021.

But what will be completed by then is only a partial operability section running from North EDSA common station to Fairview. Full completion has been pushed back to 2022, three years late from the DOTr’s initial target.

The MRT-7, a public private partnership project being undertaken by conglomerate San Miguel Corp., is a 22-kilometer railway system that will connect Quezon City to San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan.

Once operational, the MRT-7 is expected to ferry between 300,000 and 800,000 passengers per day, with room for capacity expansion to accommodate future increases in ridership.

Aside from the MRT-7, two Light Rail Transit (LRT) lines extension projects are also behind schedule.

The P65.1 billion LRT-1 Cavite Extension was originally slated for completion by October 2021 following the groundbreaking ceremony on May 4, 2017.

Actual civil works of the 11.7-kilometer extension, however, started only last May, with the partial operability of a section from Baclaran to Dr. Santos in Parañaque expected to be completed by December 2021, and full operations by the third quarter of 2023.

The extended system can accommodate up to 800,000 passengers per day, and will reduce travel time from Baclaran to Bacoor, Cavite from one to two hours to only 25 minutes.

The LRT-2 East Extension, for its part, was supposed to be completed by August 2018 based on DOTr’s initial target.

The P9.7 billion project, which involves the construction of a 3.9-km extension of the existing LRT-2 system from Santolan in Pasig City to Masinag in Antipolo, is now expected to be finished by December next year.

When the project is completed, it will reduce travel time from Masinag to Claro M. Recto from three hours to only 40 minutes.

A Philippine National Railways (PNR) line to the north – from Manila to Clark – was also earlier envisioned to be in place by next year, but that won’t be the case.

“By 2020, this would be the reality,” the DOTr said in its 2017 report, referring to what was then called the PNR North, a project involving a 38-km Phase 1 segment spanning from Tutuban to Malolos in Bulacan, and a Phase 2 stretch from Malolos to Clark in Pampanga.

The Tutuban to Malolos portion, now dubbed as the PNR Clark 1 or the North-South Commuter Railway, started civil works in February, and is eyed for partial operations by the fourth quarter of 2021.

PNR Clark 2, which is composed of a 53-km extension to Clark in Pampanga, is expected to begin civil works by the second quarter of next year, with a partial operability target of 2022.

Meanwhile, three highly anticipated big-ticket rail projects which are supposed to have started construction by this time have also faced delays.

Based on the DOTr’s 2017 annual report, the P357-billion Metro Manila subway project was seen beginning construction by the fourth quarter of 2018, and was due for partial operability by the second quarter of 2022.

Construction works for the country’s first subway system, however, will only start this month, but the DOTr is looking at completing its partial operability portion at a much earlier date, which is by the fourth quarter 2021. Full operations of the system is eyed by November 2025.

The P175-billion PNR Bicol, also known as the PNR South Long Haul Project, was also supposed to start construction by the third quarter of 2018, but is now targeted to commence civil works by the second or third quarter next year.

The 639-kilometer long-haul rail line, which will cut travel time from Manila to Bicol from 12 hours by car to under six hours, is set for partial operability by December 2021 and full operations by 2025.

In addition, construction of the initial segment of the country’s first train system outside Luzon, the Mindanao Railway Project, was originally targeted to begin in the third quarter of last year and expected to be finished by the second quarter of 2021.

Target start of civil works is expected to start by the first quarter of next year. Completion of the partial operability section from Tagum to Davao is expected to happen by the second quarter of 2022, with full operations of the entire first phase alignment by the fourth quarter of 2022.

The P82-billion Phase 1 of the Mindanao Railway Project, or the Tagum-Davao-Digos segment, will have eight stations located in Tagum, Carmen, Panabo, Mudiang, Davao, Toril, Sta. Cruz, and Digos. It will cut travel time from Tagum City in Davao del Norte to Digos City in Davao del Sur from 3.5 hours to 1.3 hours.

For Transportation Undersecretary for rails Timothy John Batan, there is an array of factors affecting the schedule and timeline of implementing rail projects in the country, among which are investment decision and financing.

“The usual part of the process is, of course, first to get the NEDA board approval because that’s the investment decision. You cannot do anything if you don’t have that investment decision and it is just right that it undergoes that process. Imagine we’re investing a lot of taxpayers’ money and a lot of government resources so it is right to undergo such process,” he said.

“Number two is financing. You cannot build anything if you don’t have the money. Our lenders won’t simply provide the funds without undergoing the process,” Batan said.

Except for the MRT-7 and the upcoming LRT-2 West Extension project which will extend the existing Line 2 system by 3.02 kms from Recto Station to Pier 4, the rest of the country’s railway projects are being funded by an official development assistance (ODA) from either Japan or China.

The North-South Commuter Railway Project, LRT-2 East Extension, Metro Manila Subway, LRT-1 Cavite Extension (for its light rail vehicles and depot), and the ongoing maintenance and rehabilitation of the MRT-3 are financed by Japan ODA.

PNR Bicol, Mindanao Railway, and a planned Subic-Clark Railway, meanwhile, are funded by China ODA.

China ODAs are different from Japan as far as the process goes. For Japan ODA, loan comes first then project contract agreement, while for China, project contract agreement comes first and then loan agreement follows.

“People don’t see it, but our development lenders, you will not simply go to them, knock on their doors and then they will give you money. It doesn’t work that way. They have to be confident and we have to get their trust and confidence that we will use the funds right,” Batan said.

“We’re borrowing hundreds of billions of pesos from them and we need it. So it is just right for them to look for good governance, that there’s no corruption, and that the procurements are going to happen,” he said.

Batan said other factors that could derail a project’s schedule are right of way, procurement and detailed engineering design, which takes 12 to 24 months to complete.

Batan admits the right-of-way delivery remains very challenging for the government at present.

“It is still hard. But we’ve seen a big improvement and much of that is thanks to Congress because of the new Right-of-Way Law in 2016 that allows us to give current market value offer so the owners are much more receptive,” he said.

Despite the challenges, the DOTr, under the leadership of Secretary Arthur Tugade, nonetheless managed to make significant strides to achieve the government’s grand railway vision for the country.

The DOTr has settled the dispute on the location of the unified grand central station, with the construction of the common station that will connect four major rail lines (LRT-1, MRT-3, MRT-7, and the Metro Manila Subway) finally starting in May.

Issues on the China-made Dalian train sets procured by the previous administration have also been resolved, with the manufacturer agreeing to shoulder the cost of the technical adjustments as the government aims to integrate the trains into the MRT-3 operations.

The DOTr has also vowed to fix and restore the MRT-3 to its original and high-grade design state by the third quarter of 2021 after re-engaging the services of Sumitomo-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the train system’s rehabilitation and maintenance.

All these constructions, improvements and initiatives are aimed at solving the issues such as lack of coaches, numerous breakdowns, and daily passenger overflow that have plagued the nation’s railway systems.

The end goal, according to Tugade, is to give the public affordable and efficient services.

“When we assumed, the total kilometers of the railway stations in the Republic of the country is barely 77 kilometers. While other countries in this domain have increased and improved on their population of railways, ours have decreased. Therefore, right now, what we are trying to do is to achieve a working ideal number of kilometers so that we can achieve the objective of President Duterte to give the Filipinos a comfortable life,” Tugade said.

From a total of 77 kms of operational railways, the DOTr intends to further expand the current length to a total of 1,900 kms by 2022.

The country’s 2016 rolling stock fleet of 221 operational train cars, also known as light rail vehicles or coaches, is also eyed to grow to more than 1,200 by the end of the Duterte administration.

“What we are doing in rail is we are trying to expand not only the coverage but more importantly we are trying to improve the equipment and the facilities needed to make a smooth mobility and connectivity among its people,” Tugade said.