The Philippines Department of Transport (DOTr) and the consortium comprising Japan Transport Engineering Company (J-TREC) and Sumitomo Corporation signed a new contract for the delivery of an additional NSCR train fleet of 38 eight-car train sets (304 train cars) expected to be delivered until 2028.
The JPY 72.5 billion (USD 604.17 million) contract was signed on March 22, when the Transport Secretary Art Tugade and Philippine National Railways (PNR) unveiled the first 8-car trainset out of 13 eight-car fleet for the 147 km North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) rail system.
The new trains will be manufactured in Yokohama, Japan, and are designed to comply with both Japanese and international standards.
The trains for the rail system in Metropolitan Manila sets are designed to operate at up to 120 km/h, shortening the travel time from Clark International Airport in Pampanga to Calamba in Laguna from more than 4 hours down to less than 2 hours.
After decades of attempts starting as early as 1994, the 38 km PNR Clark 1 and 53 km PNR Clark 2 sections of the 147 km NSCR system are in construction phase.
With 35 stations spanning 28 local government units (LGU) from Mabalacat, Pampanga to Calamba, Laguna, the NSCR railway system is expected to serve over 1 million passengers per day. During construction, the project is expected to create around 50,000 direct jobs and 110,000 indirect jobs, with an additional 8,000 jobs created when the railway line starts full operations.
The project is to be undertaken as part of the ODA programme of Japan based on a loan aid agreement between Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Philippines government. The consortium will design and manufacture the additional ordered NSCR train fleet for the route running from Clark to Calamba. Sumitomo Corporation and J-TREC received orders of the delivery of train cars for Phase 1 of the North-South Commuter Railway Project in July 2019 and the delivery of train cars for Metro Manila Subway project in December 2020.
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