MANILA, Philippines — Two sleek and brand new diesel locomotives would be added to the Philippine National Railways (PNR) fleet starting on Dec. 16 as part of the government’s efforts to improve the local train system.

On Wednesday, officials of the Department of Transportation and PNR presided over the unveiling ceremony for the two train sets consisting of six coaches each in Tondo, Manila.

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The train sets were part of the 37 coaches ordered by the government from Indonesia for P3.5 billion.

With a capacity of 794, the two trains were expected to add around 18 to 20 trips daily to the FTI-Malabon and Tutuban-Malabon routes. The trip would take around 58 minutes for a fare of P25.

House transportation committee chair Rep. Edgar Sarmiento, who also attended the ceremony, said it was the first time in 40 years that the Philippines was able to purchase brand new trains through the national budget.

The procurement was part of the PNR’s general thrust to improve the reliability and capacity of the railway system servicing outlying corridors in Manila.

While the PNR was supposed to ferry 250,000 passengers a day given the capacity of its long-haul trains and routes, issues about train reliability and availability had plagued the oldest railway system in the country, said PNR general manager Junn Magno.

“Back then (before 2017), we were not even making an impact because we’re just serving 20,000 passengers a day,” Magno said in his speech. “I’ve always been fighting fires; what to do with availability, what to do with reliability, but two years ago, we already decided to purchase those trains.”

Now, he stressed, the PNR’s ridership has grown to around 70,000 to 75,000 a day, a significant growth that, however, still pales in comparison to the Metro Rail Transit 3’s 350,000 passengers a day.

The new trains were assembled by engineers and craftsmen from PT Inka in Indonesia, Magno said. They used international railway standards in the trains’ terms of references.

Indonesian Ambassador to Manila Sinyo Sarundajang said the trains symbolized Jakarta’s commitment to supporting President Duterte’s “Build, Build, Build” program.

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Just last week, the PNR debuted a fully refurbished 50-year-old train donated by Japan on its PNR-Calamba route.

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