The Department of Transportation said Friday it is set to sign contracts on the acquisition of an additional 304 train cars for the North-South Commuter Railway System Project.
The agency on Friday unveiled the first eight of the 104 train cars, which the government earlier procured for the NSCR project.
“We will also be signing the contract for additional train cars also for the NSCR System,” Transportation undersecretary for railways Timothy John Batan said.
He said the DOTr and the Philippine National Railways would initially sign another contract for 56 airport express train cars for the project.
The NSCR’s train sets are designed to operate at up to 120 kilometers per hour, shortening the travel time from Clark International Airport in Pampanga to Calamba, Laguna from more than four hours to less than two hours.
“The ongoing expansion of the Philippines railway network, happening at record scale and at record speed, would not be possible without the unwavering support of our partners from the international development community and the global railway industry,” Batan said.
“We recognize and we thank our partners from the government of Japan and from the Japan International Cooperation Agency for their ‘fast and sure support’ and the 786 billion Japanese yen or P362 billion of official development assistance being extended for the NSCR project,” he said.
After decades of attempts starting 1994, the 38-kilometer PNR Clark 1 and 53-kilometer PNR Clark 2 segments of the 147-kilometer NSCR System are now being constructed at full blast.
The NSCR System, with 35 stations spanning 28 local government units from Mabalacat, Pampanga to Calamba, Laguna is expected to serve over a million passengers a day upon completion.
The project is expected to create around 50,000 direct jobs and 110,000 indirect jobs during the construction stage and an additional 8,000 jobs once the railway line starts full operations.