The Philippine National Railways (PNR) is acquiring three additional fast long-haul locomotives to ply the Manila-Naga route for P1 billion, receiving two bids from foreign train manufacturers.
Junn B. Magno, general manager of the state-owned railway operator, said CRRC Corp. Ltd. of China and PT Industri Kereta Api (PT Inka) of Indonesia have submitted bids for the supply of three long-haul trains. Both companies are owned by their governments.
“We are working on the Manila to Naga train that we have designed and we will be buying,”Magno said in an interview. “They are like business class and first class trains that will run between 160 kilometers per hour to 200 kph.”
Currently, Magno’s group is conducting the post-qualification procedures for the auction. This, he said, will take about a month or two.
“Our target delivery is within 18 months, but the problem there is how are we going to cut into the production line,” he said.
Magno noted that his group will first start replacing the rails and build new ones for the service to be available before 2022. Construction works for the new rails are set for 2020. Once completed, the service will cut travel time from Manila to Naga to three hours.
In a related development, Magno said his group expects to accept delivery of two new locomotives from PT Inka, which won the auction for the supply of seven trains in 2018, sometime this month.
“The time line is by the end of November, we should have two locomotives on our tracks. The issue there is the government processes—particularly our exemption from taxes and other fees. The trains were already completed in July, it’s just a matter of processes,” he said.
May 2018 saw the PNR management and PT Inka entering into a P2.5-billion contract for the delivery of four diesel multiple train units, which can carry up to 1,090 passengers per trip, and three diesel hydraulic locomotive train sets, which can serve up to 1,330 passengers per trip.
Under the contract, the new trains is expected to deliver faster and can carry more passengers to reach the 150,000 passengers a day mark, before February 2020.
“Their contractual obligation is to deliver the new trains by February, but we are hoping to receive the new trains by January,” he said.
The new trains will be deployed in the Malabon-Calamba route.