The completion and full operation of the Subic-Clark-Manila-Batangas Railway Corridor (SCMB) will further improve the Philippine economy and could elevate the country’s status to middle class, the chairman of the Philippine National Railways (PNR) said on Friday, June 21.
PNR chairman Michael Ted Macapagal said the SCMB will revive the good economic standing not only of Central Luzon but also other areas where the mass transport system would traverse.
“This will also provide employment for tens of thousands of people in the surrounding provinces,” said Macapagal.
Macapagal issued the statement after Department of Transportation Secretary Jaime J. Bautista announced that the department will will bid out the SCMB contract to undertake the feasibility study within the year as a follow-up to President Marcos’ pitched the railway project during the recent trilateral summit with U.S. President Joe ediden and Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last April.
The ADB will finance the $8 million consultancy feasibility work for the SCMB railway project.
The project also got a big boost after the US State Department stated that it will coordinate the implementation of the project through the Office of the Special Presidential Coordinator for the G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment.
The project, according to the US State Department, will demonstrate the US commitment to create more resilient economies and drive long term sustainable development .
First of its kind
The SCMB is the first project of its kind undertaken by the US, in partnership with Japan and the Philippines in the Indo-Pacific Region.
Macapagal, who hailed from Olongapo city and whose father even served as mayor of back in the 80, recalled that the bases were also the source of much needed foreign exchange, without which the Philippine Government would not have been able to pay for imports like medicines, food, and industrial products at the time.
He said the closure of the bases in 1992 threw the country into the doldrums. It took sometime for the government to turn them into economic zones.
The creation of the corridor, economists say, will further spur growth by making the transport of consumer products, the high-value semiconductors, as well as agricultural goods coming from northen and central Luzon, much faster and cheaper, making them more competitive here and abroad.
“It is a demonstration of the international community’s confidence in the leadership of President Marcos that the G7 countries has committed itself to supporting the Luzon Economic Corridor,” Macapagal said.
Cargo train
The SCMB, according to Macapagal, is intended for cargo trains as he noted that it is not to be confused with the North-South Commuter Railway, which is now under construction.
The NSCR is meant to transport passengers. When completed five years hence, it will be able to ferry 800,000 people a day aboard 60 electric train sets running on the 147 kilometer elevated railway tracks between Angeles City in Pampanga. and Calamba City in Laguna.
The price tag for the entire NSCR project is P873.62 billion.