Travel time between Manila and Central Luzon will be cut short by as much as 70% with the completion of the Philippine National Railways’ (PNR) Manila-Clark Railway Project in 2020, according to transport officials at a recent ceremony that marked one of the rail system’s stations.
The P255-billion 106-kilometer line that will run from Tutuban in Manila to Clark in Pampanga will cut travel time between the two points down to 55 minutes, a significant reduction from the current two to three hours of travel.
The railway will have 17 stations: Tutuban, Caloocan, Valenzuela, Marilao, Meycauayan, Solis, Bocaue, Balagtas, Guigunto, Malolos, Calumpit, Apalit, San Fernando, Angeles, Clark, Clark International Airport, and the proposed New Clark City in Tarlac.
Based on the study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is being tapped for the project, construction of the railway will be finished in the last quarter of 2021.
The Philippine government and JICA already signed an almost $2-billion loan agreement for the Tutuban to Malolos stretch in 2015.
Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, during the station-marking ceremony on June 26, requested that the project be finished by 2020 instead of 2021.
He also asked that the railway be made partially operational once seven of the 17 stations have been built. Construction will start in the last quarter of 2017.
The first commuter rail project to be extended to Central Luzon, it is expected to decongest Metro Manila and spur development in the peripheries of Metro Manila. It is designed to accommodate 350,000 passengers daily on its opening year.
The project is one of 61 infrastructure projects under the Build, Build, Build program of the Duterte administration.
Other rail projects in the pipeline include the PNR South Railway (Manila-Los Baños-Bicol) and the Mindanao Railway, while the Metro Rail Transit Line 7, Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 2 East Extension, and LRT-1 Cavite Extension are all under construction.
