Refurbished rolling stock sits at this Malolos, Bulacan station on Monday, a direct beneficiary of the JICA-funded North-south Commuter Railway program of the government. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Phase 1 of the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) project should finally break ground in February, about a year since Japan and the Philippines first agreed on pursuing the program as part of the ambitious infrastructure buildup program of the government.

Its implementing agency, the Department of Transportation (DoTr), previously obtained committed funding from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and involves extending the rail line of the Philippine National Railways (PNR) from the Tutuban Station in Manila to Malolos in Bulacan and all the way to the airport at Clark.

Transportation Undersecretary Timothy John Batan said the first phase of the railway extension project should begin next month.

“Phase 1 is going to start construction in February. That’s for the initial 38 kilometers from Tutuban to Malolos. For the extension to the North, we are starting our procurement already,” Batan told reporters.

According to him, the once problematic infrastructure program is “90 percent free and clear of right of way” problems.

“So, we are going straight to mobilization by February. The remaining 10 percent are just the fringes so full-scale construction will begin,” he added.

“Partial operability by 2022 will cover the entire segment from Clark airport all the way to Blumentritt station in the South. That’s the interchange station with LRT 1 and by second quarter of 2023, full operations will be in place all the way to Calamba,” Batan said.

PNR General Manager Jun Magno said they will begin commissioning by December 2021, noting that some rail activity should be visible by that time.

“Right now, we are concentrating on the National Capital Region. PNR has alignments from Cabanatuan to Balagtas (Bulacan) so we asked the National Economic and Development Authority to conduct a feasibility study for the Cabanatuan to Makati line,” Magno said.

“We asked them to conduct two studies. One is Cabanatuan to Bulacan and the San Jose, Nueva Ecija to Tarlac connecting to NCR and possibly a feasibility study of the Cagayan tunnel,” he added.

Batan said the line is projected to accommodate around 350,000 passengers per day by 2022 and some 1.1 million passengers after the project is completed.

Magno also said the two mainlines of the PNR extension project can accommodate one million passengers each.

“Each mainline can accommodate 1 million each per day towards Metro Manila. That is our first Metro-grade train system. This is the first one that we’ll have with a much greater [passenger] capacity,” he said.