The revival of the cargo rail system, which will run from Manila to Laguna, will cost the private sector P10 billion, but it will decongest the port area in the country’s capital by as much as a tenth.
Ferdinand G. Inacay, who sits as the president of MRail Inc., a unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., said his company is eager to start the rehab and the reconstruction of railway cargo system that will connect the ports of Manila and an inland container terminal facility in Laguna.
The service will make use of the existing right of way of the Philippine National Railways (PNR) and is expected to start operating in two years’ time.
“The total project size for the Manila-to-Calamba cargo rail is P10 billion; it includes the procurement of eight locomotives, which will push and pull the 120 wagons and the rehab of the rails,” he said over lunch on Wednesday.
A wagon set will comprise of two locomotives and 30 wagons. The company initially plans to launch eight services per day.
Inacay said this will free up a portion of the roads in Metro Manila, decongesting the arteries that run to and from the south of the capital.
“Based on our study, there are 6,000 trucks entering Manila from the south daily. With the said service, we can remove about 10 percent of as much as 600 trucks on the roads per day,” he said.
International Container Terminal Services Inc. used to operate the cargo trains transporting containers from the port of Manila to Laguna. Its operations started in 1998, and was folded down in 2003.
MRail, a subsidiary of the Manila Electric Co., submitted the railway cargo-system proposal in 2015 to the Aquino administration, but failed to implement it due to technicalities.
The private company now awaits the final approval of Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade. The project is now up for review, and Inacay is confident that his group will receive the go signal to start with the project during the administration’s first 100 days.
Under its proposal, MRail will make use of the tracks of the PNR to transport containers to and from Calamba, Laguna, and Manila. The company will pay track access fees to the government on a per kilometer basis.
Inacay noted that the railway cargo project will aid in improving the country’s competitiveness, especially in the advent of the Asean integration “by creating a more efficient and seamless port to industrial zones and industrial zones to port cargo movement.”
It will also improve logistics corridor, which means efficiencies in production costs and transport costs, thereby benefiting the general public and the market.