Despite all the economic progress our country has been enjoying, the Philippines still lacks mass transit infrastructure. That includes the ever important trains, and the assets that we do have in our country are either too old or too few to service the thousands of commuters that ply the metro each day (just ask the people who use the MRT to go to work).
It’s not surprising then that the Department of Science and Technology are looking for a way to indigenously produce an train that runs on clean power. Enter the DOST and the PNR’s locally designed and developed hybrid train that runs on PNR’s current infrastructure.
The Electric Hybrid Train is still a five-car prototype right now, but it’s now set to be tested for both reliability and safety on the PNR’s existing tracks and the next few months. If the new train proves its worth, it may be put into service by the PNR to augment their small and aging fleet of commuter trains.
PNR general manager Joseph Allan Dilay said that they only had seven trains(!) for their operations, which span from Caloocan City to Alabang.
“Right now, our headway is 30 minutes. We can improve that if we can add more trains to maybe 20 minutes,” Dilay said.
