The Duterte administration’s aggressive “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure-development project is supposed to usher in what is touted as the “golden age of infrastructure” in the country, at a whopping cost of P8 trillion until 2022.
A number of projects have been proposed under the Build, Build, Build framework that will dramatically change the Philippine landscape, including roads and bridges, airports and seaports and mass-transport systems, including a subway system for Metro Manila.
The North-South Railway Project (NSRP) is envisioned to provide better transportation and logistics services between Metro Manila and Southern Luzon by restoring the oldest rail system in Southeast Asia. It is part of the Duterte administration’s objective to catalyze economic growth in Southern Luzon by providing critical connectivity through a world-class passenger-rail service.
The proposed NSRP covers Metro Manila to Legazpi City in Albay province, plus a number of existing and proposed branch lines totaling approximately 653 kilometers. It consists of a 56-km commuter railway operation between the existing Tutuban Station in Manila and Calamba in Laguna. This section represents an existing Philippine National Railway (PNR) right-of-way, which runs through Metro Manila. Extensive rehabilitation and reconstruction will be undertaken by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the PNR to bring it to safe operating condition.
The other component of NSRP is long-haul railway operations between Tutuban and Legazpi, including extended long-haul rail operations on the branch line between Calamba and Batangas and extension between Legazpi and Matnog.
At present NSRP has a narrow gauge railway. But rail-transport experts have raised questions as to why the DOTr and National Economic and Development Authority officials want to replace the narrow gauge in favor of the standard- gauge track system, when the use of wider tracks will make this project more expensive, unduly delay its completion and result in safety, efficiency and technical concerns.
The narrow-gauge technology, according to the DOTr, is already becoming obsolete. But the narrow-gauge technology is still being used in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and other developed countries. Experts say the use of narrow-gauge tracks, also known as the Cape Gauge, is cheaper than the broad gauge in railways.
The DOTr plans to change the narrow-gauge tracks of 1.067 meters to the standard-gauge tracks of 1.440 meters is seen bloating the cost of the NRSP from P170 billion to P260 billion, or a mark-up of P90 billion.
The planned change to standard gauge will unduly delay the project, as narrow tracks have already been laid out up to Naga City and will only require rehabilitation.
The switch to the more expensive standard gauge will require not only reconstruction of the tracks, but also additional right-of-way acquisitions, which have caused undue delays in many land-transport projects in the past. Maintaining the narrow-gauge system will meet safety and efficiency requirements, because such narrow tracks operate safely and efficiently at top train speeds of 140 kph to 200 kph.
This perfectly fits the design speed of both PNR North (from Tutuban to Malolos City) and PNR South (Tutuban to Naga City), which run at a top train speed of 140 kilowatts per hour and an average speed of 80 kph. In contrast, standard-gauge trains operate at speeds of 250 kph, or almost double that of trains running on narrow-gauge tracks.
The unnecessary switch will be a burden to Filipino taxpayers, because they will eventually have to pay more in terms of higher taxes to cover the extra project cost of P90 billion without gaining any additional benefit from the project.
Some 30,000 daily train passengers will also be inconvenienced, considering that the need to reconstruct or build, instead of just rehabilitating, the railway will mean that the PNR Commuter Service will be stopped completely during the reconstruction and relaying of the tracks that will take months, if not years, to finish.
The DOTr has been spearheading the track switch on grounds that narrow-gauge trains and locomotives are heading for obsolescence in the next decade and will thus limit supplier options. However, this argument is untenable because the narrow gauge is far from becoming an obsolete rail technology.
According to General Electric, the world’s leading locomotive manufacturer, narrow-gauge trains will continue to operate in the next decades, which means that train manufacturers will continue producing narrow-gauge trains and train spare parts.
The question now is: Will President Duterte allow this project to cost an extra P90 billion when it could actually be completed a lot cheaper and much faster using a technology that has been proven to be safer and more efficient for train passengers?
E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.
1 comment
The switch to the more expensive standard gauge will require not only reconstruction of the tracks, but also additional right-of-way acquisition – false! the pnr ROW along the single track main line is 20m wide. where you have double tracks (eg. alabang), ROW increases to 30 to 40m. surely, this can very well acccomodate a 0.4m transition from narrow to standard gauge.