The Marcos government appears to have placed the development of modern rail-based transportation systems at the forefront of its strategy to ease traffic and speed up the flow of people and goods in various parts of the country.

The move is creating ripples of optimism and creating hopes that the Philippines can soon catch up with the rest of its neighbors in Southeast Asia in terms of transportation efficiency.

Just recently, Department of Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista announced that the country’s rail transportation system is set to be “digitalized” as the Philippines envisions a “solid and fully connected, technology-stacked rail sector.

Bautista made the statement at a conference on upskilling workers for the digital age, where he said the Philippines is “taking significant strides towards revolutionizing its railway system.” The DoTr head echoed an earlier commitment made by President Bongbong Marcos Jr. that his administration “vows to continue to modernize and improve the country’s transportation system.”

Marcos made the statement at a contract signing ceremony last year in connection with the administration’s mammoth North South Commuter Railways project, the 147-kilometer rail-based system connecting Calamba City and New Clark City and which will pass through traffic-choked portions of the National Capital Region.

Dotr Undersecretary for Rails, Jeremy Regino said the NSCR, seen to be operational by 2029, will feature an airport express service with trains that will run at a speed of up to 160 kilometers per hour (kph). This service promises to cut by half or by 2 hours, travel time from Clark to Calamba. It also stands to give the Philippines one of the fastest trains running on a Southeast Asian railway.

Regino added that the NSCR also promises to revive a rail transportation sector that has languished at the bottom of the ranking in the region.

Based on reports released by the World Economic Forum, the Philippines is at the cellar in terms of the quality of rail transportation infrastructure. In the roster of SE Asian countries, it tails Thailand and Vietnam in a seven-country ranking topped by Singapore and Malaysia.

In the 25-country listing for the whole of Asia, the Philippines is also at the bottom, lagging behind countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Japan and Hong Kong are at the top of the ladder.

Worldwide, the quality of the country’s rail transportation infrastructure is at the 86th spot in a list of 101 countries, slightly ahead of the likes Zambia, Zimbabwe and Madagascar. Japan tops the list with Hong Kong and Switzerland right behind at second and third, respectively.

According to the World Economic Forum report, the quality of rail transportation infrastructure indicator is one of the components of the Global Competitiveness index which it publishes annually. The index shows how much ability a country has to attract investors, and to make investors decide to put their money there.

The poor ranking of the Philippines in this category leads to the question, “what ever happened to the country’s erstwhile extensive rail system, and why did the remains of that system languish in apparent neglect?”

Historical accounts indicate that the country once had a 190-plus kilometer railway line which ran from Manila northwards to Dagupan. Built in the late 1800s, the system was later extended southwards to Legazpi in Albay, and northwards to San Fernando, in La Union. There were also railway lines in Panay islands, Cebu and the Negros provinces used to transport sugar cane.