Rail transportation in the Philippines

Rail transportation in the Philippines is currently used mostly to transport passengers within Metro Manila and provinces of Laguna and Quezon, as well as a commuter service in the Bicol Region. Freight transport services once operated in the country, but these services were halted. However, there are plans to restore old freight services and build new lines. From a peak of 1,100 kilometers (680 mi), the country currently has a railway footprint of 533.14 kilometers (331.28 mi), of which only 129.85 kilometers (80.69 mi) are operational as of 2025, including all the urban rail lines. World War II, natural calamities, underspending, and neglect have all contributed to the decline of the Philippine railway network. In the 2019 Global Competitiveness Report, the Philippines has the lowest efficiency score among other Asian countries in terms of efficiency of train services, receiving a score of 2.4, and ranking 86th out of 101 countries globally. The government is currently expanding the railway network up to 1,900 kilometers (1,200 mi) by 2022 through numerous projects.
The Philippine railway network consists of two commuter lines provided by the Philippine National Railways (PNR) and three urban mass transit lines operated by the Light Rail Transit Authority and Metro Rail Transit Corporation, all of which are located in Luzon. Within the last century, there were operating intercity rail lines extending from Manila both north and south operated by PNR. There were also lines on the Panay and Cebu islands, operated by Panay Railways, which currently does not own rolling stock or rail, only property. There were also short industrial railways in Negros Island operated by sugar mills such as the Hawaiian-Philippines Company.
There has been rail transport in the Philippines for over 120 years. On June 25, 1875, King Alfonso XII of Spain promulgated a Royal Decree directing the Office of the Inspector of Public Works of the Philippines to submit a general plan for railroads on Luzon. The plan, which was submitted five months later by Don Eduardo Lopez Navarro, was entitled Memoria Sobre el Plan General de Ferrocarriles en la Isla de Luzón, and was promptly approved. A concession for the construction of a railway line from Manila to Dagupan was granted to Don Edmundo Sykes of the Ferrocarril de Manila-Dagupan on June 1, 1887. The construction and running of the railway was done by Manila Railway Company Ltd that was a British owned company. The first rail tracks were laid in 1891 and its first commercial run was in 1892.
With the American takeover of the Philippines, the Philippine Commission allowed the Manila Electric Railroad and Light Company (Meralco) to take over the properties of the Compañia de los Tranvias de Filipinas, with the first of twelve mandated electric tranvia (tram) lines operated by Meralco opening in Manila in 1905. At the end of the first year around 63 kilometers (39 mi) of track had been laid. A five-year reconstruction program was initiated in 1920, and by 1924, 170 cars serviced many parts of the city and its outskirts. Although it was an efficient system for the city's 220,000 inhabitants, by the 1930s the streetcar network had stopped expanding.
At the Tutuban Central Terminal in a bustling district of old Manila was the terminal of the Philippine National Railways for two lines, to the north and to the south. From the center of Manila towards Baguio in the north, the line ended in San Fernando, La Union while the south line stopped in Legazpi in the Bicol region. To and from these points it carried people and their goods, their trade and livelihood.
In 1936, the first standard-gauge railway was introduced to the Philippines in the form of two Climax locomotives for the Dahican Lumber Company (DALCO). These were originally built in 1917 for the San Joaquin and Eastern Railroad in California and were sold after their closure in 1933. In July 1941, a 3T type Shay locomotive was also acquired from the Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company. The status of this short-line railroad after the war remains unknown.
Most of the improvements on the rail network were destroyed during Japanese invasion of the Philippines during the World War II. Of the more than a thousand route-kilometers before the war, only 452 were operational after it. For several years after the war, work was undertaken on what could be salvaged of the railroad system. By the war's end, the tram network was also damaged beyond repair amid a city that lay in ruins. It was dismantled and jeepneys became the city's primary form of transportation, plying the routes once served by the tram lines. With the return of buses and cars to the streets, traffic congestion became a problem.
Due to natural disasters and a lack of government support, railways began to decline in the post-war period. The funding during the 1970s was shifted to road-based infrastructure, such as the Philippine highway network. The PNR later became the attached agency of the then-Ministry of Transportation and Communications (now DOTr).
Some services began to close in 1984, with the North Main Line being cut short to Paniqui, Tarlac. It was again shortened to Meycauayan in 1988. The eruption of Mount Pinatubo would result in the closure of the entire line in 1991. The commuter services started in 1990, with a short extension to Malolos, but they were shut down in 1997. The South Main Line was also closed due to natural disasters, including the eruption of Mayon Volcano in 1993 and Typhoons Milenyo and Reming in 2006. This was also closed in October 2012 due to a derailment incident in Sariaya, Quezon and the ongoing disrepair of typhoon-damaged bridges. This would later close again in 2014, then in 2017.
Since then, the train system has been underinvested and the country has spent much more on road projects. Long, winding roads were made from these abandoned railways. While road-based transportation became dominant after the closure of the railways in the late 1980s, other modes of transportation, such as buses, have played a major role in routes leading to the provinces.
In 1966, the Philippine government granted a franchise to Philippine Monorail Transport Systems (PMTS) for the operation of an inner-city monorail. The monorail's feasibility was still being evaluated when the government asked the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to conduct a separate transport study. Prepared between 1971 and 1973, the JICA study proposed a series of circumferential and radial roads, an inner-city rapid transit system, a commuter railway, and an expressway with three branches. The master plan would be known as the Urban Transport Study for the Manila Metropolitan Area (UTSMMA). After further examination, many recommendations were adopted; however, none of them involved rapid transit and the monorail was never built. PMTS' franchise subsequently expired in 1974. Another study was performed between 1976 and 1977, this time by Freeman Fox and Associates and funded by the World Bank. It originally suggested a street-level railway, but its recommendations were revised by the newly formed Ministry of Transportation and Communications (now the DOTr). The ministry instead called for an elevated system because of the city's many intersections.
MMETROPLAN disagreed with several of the assumptions and proposals of UTSMMA. For one, Freeman, Fox—and the World Bank—did not feel that the heavy rail transit advocated by the Japanese was suitable to Manila’s conditions. “It would be hopelessly uneconomic,” they concluded, arguing against any form of segregated mass transit system. The report also says "These results are conclusive, and are unlikely to be changed by any circumstances or reasonable assumptions…it is clear that any other fully segregated public transport system, whether light rail or busway, would also be uneconomic. As such systems would require the appropriation of most, if not all, of the available funds for all transport (including highways) in Metro Manila for the foreseeable future, and as there is not other rationale for their implementation, they have been rejected from further consideration.”
President Ferdinand Marcos created the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) in 1980. The first lady Imelda Marcos, then governor of Metro Manila and minister of human settlements, became its first chairman. Construction of LRT Line 1 started in September 1981, test-run in March 1984, and the first half of the line from Baclaran to Central Terminal opened on December 1, 1984. The second half, from Central Terminal to Monumento, opened on May 12, 1985. Overcrowding and poor maintenance took its toll a few years after opening. With Japan's ODA amounting to 75 billion yen in total, the construction of LRT Line 2 began in 1997, and the first section of the line, from Santolan to Araneta Center-Cubao, was opened on April 5, 2003. The second section, from Araneta Center-Cubao to Legarda, was opened exactly a year later, with the entire line being fully operational by October 2004. During that time Line 1 was modernized. Automated fare collection systems using magnetic stripe plastic tickets were installed; air-conditioned trains added; pedestrian walkways between Lines 1, 2, and the privately operated 3 were completed. In 2005, the LRTA made a profit of ₱68 million, the first time the agency made a profit since the Line 1 became operational in 1984.
In the early 2000s, the government worked to rehabilitate rail transportation in the country, including the Philippine National Railways, through various investments and projects. Total reconstruction of rail bridges and tracks, including replacement of the current 35-kilogram (77-pound) track with newer 50-kilogram (110-pound) tracks and the refurbishing of stations, were part of the rehabilitation and expansion process. Much of those plans such as the Northrail Project were controversial and were never completed, due to allegations of being overpriced and anomalous.
MRT Line 3, which deteriorated since 2014 due to poor maintenance, underwent rehabilitation from 2019 to 2021, restoring it to its original high-grade state.
As part of the government's recent investments in transportation in the country, numerous projects are ongoing to expand and rehabilitate the railways in Luzon. Projects include the North–South Commuter Railway, a 180-kilometer (110 mi) line from New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac to Calamba, Laguna, the Metro Manila Subway, a 36-kilometer (22 mi) underground rapid transit line from Quezon City to Taguig and NAIA Terminal 3, the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension, which would extend the existing line from Baclaran to Niog, the MRT-7 would connect North Avenue to San Jose Del Monte, the MRT-4 would connect Ortigas Center to Taytay, the Subic–Clark Railway, a freight line from Subic to Clark, the PNR Batangas Railway, a new branch line serving commuters to and from Batangas, and the PNR South Long Haul, a total reconstruction and expansion of South Main Line from Manila to Matnog.
Prior to its closure, the current PNR service was also being expanded, with the PNR Metro Commuter opening stations in Caloocan and Malabon in 2018. PNR is also planning to reintroduce services to the Carmona branch line. New rolling stock was also acquired from PT INKA in Indonesia.
From the beginning of the American colonial period of the Philippines, the new American colonial Insular Government was committed to building new railways. The Philippine Railway Company, predecessor of the current Panay Railways, was incorporated in Connecticut on March 5, 1906. It was part of a "Manila syndicate", a collection of Philippine infrastructure companies including the Manila Electric Railway and Light Company, incorporated in New Jersey, the Manila Construction Company, and the Manila Suburban Railways Company. Later the Philippines Railways Construction Company was added. Cornelius Vanderbilt and William Salomon, among other leading American railwaymen sat on the board.
On May 28, 1906, the Philippine Commission granted to the Philippine Railway Corporation a concession to construct railways on the islands of Panay, Negros and Cebu.
Construction began on a railroad from Iloilo City to Roxas City in Capiz with crews working from both cities and meeting in the middle in 1907. Operations began immediately upon completion. In 1985, passenger operations ceased while in 1989 freight operations ceased.
The Philippine Railway Company, along with operating the Panay line, operated a line in Cebu from 1911 to 1942, when operations ceased because of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II. The line ran from Danao south through Cebu City to Argao. The line was built by the related Philippine Railways Construction Company.
The Philippines currently has two operational commuter lines: the PNR Inter-Provincial Commuter between Laguna and Quezon and the PNR Bicol Commuter Line, located in the Bicol Region. All of these lines are operated by Philippine National Railways.
The PNR Metro Commuter line stretches from Tondo, Manila to the southern and northern edge of Metro Manila. It links the cities of Manila, Caloocan, Malabon, Makati, Taguig, Parañaque and Muntinlupa and the province of Laguna. Currently, there are 31 railway stations, with more stations planned to be reopened in the future. The current line is colored orange on most maps.
The line ceased operations in March 2024 to make way for the North-South Commuter Railway upon its completion.
The Inter-Provincial Commuter is a 44-kilometer (27 mi) commuter and regional rail service between San Pablo, Laguna and Lucena, Quezon. It has been proposed as part of the PNR South Long Haul project in 2019. The service had its first trial run on February 14, 2022, and was reopened on June 26.
The Bicol Commuter service is a commuter rail service in the Bicol Region, between stations in Tagkawayan, Quezon, and Legazpi, Albay, with Naga in Camarines Sur acting as a central terminal. It has three services: Tagkawayan-Naga (suspended), Sipocot-Naga (operational), and Naga-Legazpi (operational)
The service was first launched on September 16, 2009 as Tagkawayan-Naga and Naga-Ligao. The trains were planned to make seven trips a day, alternating between Tagkawayan, Sipocot, Naga City and Legazpi. All services used KiHa 52 in revised blue livery.
However after further reductions, only the service between Sipocot and Naga was operating by December 2013. Service resumed between Naga and Legazpi on September 18, 2015, with one train a day. However, services were again cut in April 2017 due to an absence of rolling stock, which was worsened by a succession of typhoons that damaged railroads in the Bicol region.
Definitive plans to restore the entire route from Sipocot, Naga and Legazpi were bared with an inspection trip from Tutuban on September 20, 2019, with a rerailment crew, including certain areas of Quezon Province, in preparation of the restoration of more routes previously suspended. First to be restored was the operation of the Naga-Sipocot segment of the Bicol Commuter service in 2022. On the 31th of July 2022, the PNR resumed operations between Ligao and Naga, with two daily trips in service. The Naga–Legazpi route was reopened on December 27, 2023, six years after its suspension in April 2017 due to insufficient trains.
As of 2024, the train used for the Naga-Legazpi Route is the 8300 class coaches pulled by a INKA CC300 locomotive. While the 8000 class DMU is used in the Naga - Sipocot Line.
There are two rapid transit systems operating in the country: the Manila Light Rail Transit System, and the Manila Metro Rail System, both serving passengers in Metro Manila. Many passengers who ride the systems also take various forms of road-based public transport, such as buses, to and from a station to reach their intended destination. Beep, a contactless smart card, is used to pay fares for the lines.
The Manila Light Rail Transit System is one of the two rapid transit systems serving the Metro Manila area of the Philippines. There are two lines to the system: Line 1 and Line 2 The system is under the jurisdiction of the Light Rail Transit Authority, although the Light Rail Manila Corporation is responsible for the operations and maintenance of Line 1.
Although the system is referred to as a "light rail" system, arguably because the network is mostly elevated, the system is more akin to a rapid transit (metro) system in European-North American terms. The Manila LRT system is the first metro system in Southeast Asia, earlier than the Singapore MRT by three years.
Its 38 stations along over 43.5 kilometers (27.0 mi) of mostly elevated track form two lines. LRT Line 1, opened in 1984, travels a north–south route. LRT Line 2, opened in 2003, travels along an east–west route. All of the stations of LRT lines 1 and 2 are elevated, except for the Katipunan station (which is underground).
The system is not related to the MRT, or the Yellow Line, which forms a completely different but linked system.
The Metro Rail Transit (MRT) is the second rapid transit system serving Metro Manila in the Philippines. It originally began as a single line (MRT Line 3) that was first opened in 1999 and became fully operational by the year 2000. The MRT branding is currently associated with rapid transit lines in Metro Manila not under the jurisdiction of the LRTA, including lines 7 and 9, although the three lines will have different operators.
The system currently has 13 stations along 16.9 kilometers (10.5 mi) of mostly elevated track in an orbital north–south route. MRT Line 3, the first line in the system, opened in 1999.
The Philippine National Railways (PNR) is a state-owned railway company. As of 2016, it operates one commuter rail service in Metro Manila and local services between Sipocot, Naga City and Legazpi City in the Bicol Region. PNR began operations on November 24, 1892, as the Ferrocarril de Manila-Dagupan, during the Spanish colonial period, and later becoming the Manila Railroad Company (MRR) during the American colonial period. It became the Philippine National Railways on June 20, 1964, by virtue of Republic Act No. 4156. The PNR is an agency of the Department of Transportation.
The Light Rail Transit Authority, founded in 1981, is the owner of the Manila LRT system. It was the operator of LRT Line 1 and the current operator of LRT Line 2.
Light Rail Manila Corporation is a rail service company formed in 2014. It is the current operator of Line 1.
A private consortium of seven companies, Metro Rail Transit Corporation is owner and operator of Line 3 under a Build–operate–transfer agreement with the Department of Transportation. It was formed in 1995.
The North–South Commuter Railway (NSCR), is a 147 km (91 mi) railway being constructed in Luzon. Partial operations will begin by 2026, and full operations is expected to begin by 2029.
The Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT Line 7) is a rapid transit line under construction. When completed, the line will be 22.8 kilometers (14.2 mi) long serviced by 14 stations. The line runs in a northeast–southwest direction, beginning at San Jose del Monte, Bulacan up to the under construction North Avenue Grand Central station located in North Avenue, Quezon City.
The Metro Manila Subway (MMS) is an underground rapid transit line currently under construction in Metro Manila, Philippines. The 36-kilometer (22 mi) line, which will run north–south between Valenzuela City, Quezon City, Pasig, Makati, Taguig, and Pasay, consists of 15 stations between the Quirino Highway and FTI stations.
The Makati Intra-city Subway was a planned 11-kilometer (6.8 mi) under-construction underground rapid transit line to be located in Makati, Metro Manila, that will link establishments across the city's business district. It was to be built under a public-private partnership program between the Makati city government and a private consortium, led by Philippine Infradev Holdings. The subway was expected to begin construction by December 2020, with a 2025 deadline. The ten-station subway line was expected to cost $3.7 billion (or ₱192 billion) and was expected to accommodate 700,000 passengers daily, with connections to the existing Line 3, the Pasig River Ferry Service, and the approved Line 9 (Metro Manila Subway). However, after the Makati–Taguig boundary dispute, the subway project was deemed no longer viable.
The Department of Science and Technology has commenced a project to develop a locally designed and manufactured Automated Guideway Transit System.
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