The Philippine National Railways Metro Commuter Line is a commuter rail line operated by the Philippine National Railways, stretching from Tondo, Manila to the southern edge of Metro Manila. Presently, there are 27 railway stations. The current line is colored orange on most maps.
The current line runs in a general north-south direction from Tondo to the Province of Laguna, linking the cities of Manila, Makati, Taguig, Parañaque and Muntinlupa. Passengers can transfer to the LRT Line 1 at Blumentritt, to LRT Line 2 at Santa Mesa and to MRT Line 3 at EDSA.
The Metro Commuter Line has known for many names including PNR Metro South Commuter Line, shortened to Metro South Commuter(For the remaining active service), Metro Manila Commuter Service, Metro Commuter, Orange Line, Metrotrak, Metrotren, and Commuter Express or Commex. The orange color of the line dates back to its major upgrade in the 1970s.
Video PNR Metro Commuter Line
History
The PNR commuter service started in April 6. 1970, starting at Manila North Harbor, with stops at Tutuban, Blumentritt, Santa Mesa, Paco, Pasay Road (Culi-Culi), Gelmart (Philippine-American Embroidery), Sucat, Alabang and ends at Biñan, Laguna. The commuter service between Tutuban and San Pedro, Laguna started in November 30, 1972, it was further extended up to College station in Los Baños and Carmona, Cavite in 1974. The double tracking also lead to the construction of new stations such as Vito Cruz and Buendia in 1975, España, FTI and Bicutan in 1977 and Laon-Laan in 1978. In the 1990s an extension northwards of the service up to Meycauayan, Bulacan materialized only to be discontinued later on.
Maps PNR Metro Commuter Line
Route
The existing operational Metro Commuter Line is predominantly aligned and shares the path of the South Main Line or SouthRail which uses a dedicated right of way of its own. It terminates at Calamba Station despite having rails further towards Sorsogon, but few trains stop at Sta. Rosa and Calamba Stations further to the south. Inter-provincial services such as the Bicol Express and Mayon Limited are not running as of 2015, but plans to revive the services have been presented, especially Bicol Express will hopefully open by January or February 2017, at least as far as Naga, Camarines Sur.
- Legend
- Trains stop at stations marked "?".
- Trains pass those marked "|".
- Only morning and evening trains stop at stations marked "?".
- closed stations
- MSC -- Metro South Commuter
- SS (TU-SU) -- Shuttle Service (Tutuban to Sucat)
- SS (SA-SU) -- Shuttle Service (Santa Mesa to Sucat)
- SS (TU-CAL) -- Shuttle Service (Tutuban to Caloocan)
- SS (CAL-DLR) -- Shuttle Service (Caloocan to Dela Rosa)
- PT -- Premiere Train
Rolling stock
Four types of rolling stock currently runs on the PNR Metro Commuter line: the Hyundai Rotem Diesel Multiple Units, the locomotive hauled JR 203 series Electric multiple units, the former Kant? Railway KiHa 350 series and the former JR KiHa 52 Diesel multiple units. The line is also being served by the JR Kiha 59 (Kogane) unit which is called as the "Premiere Train" service which runs from Tutuban up to Mamatid. Due to the opening of the Calamba Station building, the Premiere Train services were currently suspended until further notice. After a derailment in April 2015 the train services were suspended for nearly three months.
Services
Current
Metro South Commuter
The Metro South Commuter (also known as MSC) is the main and only train service currently being offered by PNR that run along the Metro Commuter Line. The trains that are currently being used for this service are the 900 Series Locomotives, PNR 2500 Series Locomotives, 203 series ex-Joban Line Local EMUs donated by JR East, and the South Korean Hyundai Rotem DMUs. The trips are reduced upon announcements. On December 2, 2014, the new Calamba Station was inaugurated. Later that night, the MSC1907 was extended up to the said station. The MSC1937 was also extended, but only up to Sta. Rosa Station. As of July 2015, MSC services run between Tutuban and Alabang. As of October 2016, the trips (morning and night) only reach Mamatid.
Caloocan-Dela Rosa service
In August 1, 2018, Philippine National Railways reinstated commuter train services to Caloocan station, as preparation for the Tutuban-Malolos railway, the first section of the railway line that will end at Clark in Pampanga. The line was reopened after the line was repaired due to water intrusion. According to claims by the Department of Transportation, it will be the most efficient way of travel between Caloocan and Makati. Services will continue operating until the completion of the Tutuban-Malolos Railway.
Past
Caloocan-Meycauayan Section
During the Metrotren era, Commuter Services was extended Northwards to Meycauayan, Bulacan on May 10, 1990, with the Caloocan to Meycauayan Extension of the services before it was abandoned in 1997 due to maintenance costs and inadequate services.
A part of this line was attempted to be revived, namely the stations up to Caloocan during the latter half of the 2000s, with the rest to be revived as part of the future Northrail. The DOTr is preparing the once-renovated stations along Solis, Asistio, 10th Avenue and Caloocan, which was disturbed due to the construction of NLEX Segment 10.1 for reactivation.
Carmona Line
A spur line towards Carmona was opened on April 1, 1973 to serve the residents of the San Pedro-Carmona Resettlement Project, unfortunately, it fell into disuse, number of trips decreased and subsequently was abandoned.
Shuttle Service
The Shuttle Service was introduced on January 27, 2014. This service uses Hyundai Rotem DMUs and JR KiHa 52. There are 4 routes of the Shuttle Service, where trains stop at all stations along the routes.
- Tutuban - Sucat
- Sucat - Tutuban
- Sta. Mesa - Sucat
- Sucat - Sta. Mesa
This train service was removed last May 23, 2014 to give way to maintenance servicing of the rolling stocks. Another reason was the 3 consecutive weeks of delays and cancellations of some train trips. The service offically returned to the line on August 1, 2018, this time, to serve from the Asistio Avenue railway station up to the Dela Rosa railway station using a JR KiHa 350 DMU.
Premiere Train
The Premiere Train was a special MSC service that operates from Monday to Friday, except holidays. The train being used in this special service was the KiHa 59 "Kogane" train set, which is also from Japan. The train used to stop at selected stations only, namely Tutuban, Blumentritt, España, Sta. Mesa, Buendia, Pasay Road, EDSA (flagstop), Sucat, Alabang, San Pedro, Biñan, Santa Rosa, and Mamatid. The service had 4 trips: MSC501, MSC702, MSC1555, and MSC1802.
The service is currently suspended, due to the inauguration of the station building of Calamba (December 2014) and due to the repairs of the trainset being used for this service.
Plans
Reconstruction
As part of the DuterteNomics ("Build-Build-Build") infrastructure program by Rodrigo Duterte, the Metro Commuter Line will be reconstructed as an electrified standard-gauge full double-track line, and will serve Los Baños. On September 12, 2017, the National Economic and Development Authority approved the construction of the newer line, as part of the longer Long-haul Railway that will connect to Legazpi and Matnog, and Batangas City. Funding for the project, which costs ?131 billion, is provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and is expected to serve 300,000 passengers a day at its initial year of operation.
See also
- Manila Light Rail Transit System Line 1 (LRT-1)
- Manila Light Rail Transit System Line 2 (LRT-2)
- Manila Metro Rail Transit System (MRT-3)
- Strong Republic Transit System (SRTS)
- List of rail transit stations in the Greater Manila Area
References
External links
- The PNR Metro Commuter Line - Timetables
Source of article : Wikipedia