Bringing PNR back to life to cost P300B

A GIRL carries balloons from the ceremonies marking the reopening of the Philippine National Railways Calamba station. The oldest railway in Asia will need P300 billion and the private sector to come to life again, according to the transportation department. MARICAR P. CINCO/INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON

CALAMBA CITY—The government will leave to the private sector the rehabilitation of the Philippine National Railways (PNR), which is estimated to cost at least P300 billion, according to Transportation Secretary Jose Emilio Abaya.

Abaya announced here on Tuesday that rebuilding the 122-year-old PNR would be done through the Aquino administration’s public-private partnership (PPP) program, which allows private companies to build government infrastructure to save on government funds.

The project to make the PNR a “modern railway” would take at least four years to complete, he said. He hoped that it would start next year.

Rehabilitation requires repair of existing railways, construction of new ones and purchase of more trains.

At the sidelines of ceremonies marking the opening of a PNR station here, Abaya said the PPP program to rehabilitate the PNR would make the railway system, the oldest in Asia, “up to standards.”

“They will use the current assets, probably bring in more trains,” he said. “What’s important is they (private sector) run the show.”

Transportation officials, he said, were hoping to get the approval of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) for the PPP project this month and “hopefully bid it out by middle of next year and award it (the contract) within next year.”

The 122-year-old PNR is the oldest railway in Southeast Asia, which to Abaya, presents “two sides of the coin: It is very historic but very old.”

The government is currently restoring the 478-kilometer rail track commuter service that used to run from Tutuban station in Manila to Legazpi City in Albay province.

Abaya, with PNR and local government officials here, led the reopening of the Calamba City station.

It was the seventh PNR station reopened since last year, after PNR operations were thrice suspended due to typhoons between 2006 to October 2012.

In December 2013, the government resumed operations at PNR stations in the Muntinlupa-San Pedro-Biñan-Sta. Rosa route and at the Cabuyao station in March 2014.

Laguna Gov. Ramil Hernandez and other officials welcomed the additional train service in the province.

According to the PNR management, there will be two trips daily plying the Calamba-Tutuban route starting today. The first trip will leave the Calamba station at 5 a.m. and the second will leave Tutuban at 7 p.m.

The PNR is offering a “promo fare” of P45 from end to end during the Christmas month, but this will be adjusted by January 2015.

With a budget allocation of P2 billion for 2015 and the recent extension of the PNR’s charter for another 50 years, the PNR is expected to extend its route to Naga City in time for the Peñafrancia Festival in September 2015.

Abaya said all that his department needed was a third-party assessment to ensure that the current railway was safe for commuter trips up to Camarines Sur province.

Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, who was also a guest at Tuesday’s event, said the people of the province were looking forward to the reopening of the Naga station.

Robredo, who described herself as a longtime train commuter, said trains remain the cheapest mode of transport to and from Bicol region.