2 railway woes: No PNR funds, ‘overused’ MRT

NAGA CITY—The country’s oldest railway system may tap the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) program of the government to fully revive its operations, according to the head of the Senate committee on government corporations and public enterprises.

Sen. Cynthia Villar said reviving the full operations of the Philippine National Railways (PNR), which was established on Nov. 24, 1892 as the Ferrocarril de Manila-Dagupan during the Spanish colonial period, could require funds to come from loans and government equity.

Villar said PNR wanted to resume its operations in the North (Manila-La Union) and up to Sorsogon in the Bicol region.

“Local government units in Southern Tagalog and Bicol are very supportive because the rail is the least expensive mode of transportation, cheaper than buses and jeepneys,” she said.

Problematic rails

Another railway being operated by a private firm for the government, however, is facing a host of problems lately amid a move to raise fare.

The counsel of National Coalition of Filipino Consumers (NCFC), in a statement, said before talk about fare increase is entertained in Metro Rail Transit 3, the government should first acknowledge that “abuse and overuse” are the root causes of the railway’s problems.

Lawyer Oliver San Antonio said the MRT now transports twice its ideal capacity per day.

What the government should first do, he said, is rehabilitate the rail system which millions of Metro Manila residents rely on as their main mode of transportation.

“We discuss in detail why the MRT is the mess it is now by pointing out how the overloading of the system has led to its rapid deterioration,” said the NCFC counsel.

“Its issues cannot simply be addressed by improving maintenance,” he said.

The train line is designed to carry 350,000 passengers daily but is now forced to transport more than 500,000 people a day “on trains that should have been retired years ago.”

MRT officials had said MRT 3 trains had to be rehabilitated every eight years but no rehabilitation has been done since 2006.

San Antonio said from October 2012 to September 2013 alone, the train contractor reported 11 broken rails while from the last quarter of 2013 to May this year, 21 rails needed replacement.

PNR’s glory days

According to Villar, the PPP program may be tapped for PNR’s long-term plans. The railway’s Manila-Bicol service has been suspended since October 2012.

The railways originally covered at least 300,000 km and at the peak of PNR operations, its trains ran on 1,100 km of rails from La Union in the North to Legazpi City in Bicol. Juan Escandor Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon and Jerome Aning in Manila