Economy and Development Council approves PPP for North-South Commuter Railway operations

The  Economy and Development Council (ED) has approved the public-private partnership (PPP) for the operation and maintenance of the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR).

The North-South Commuter Railway is a 147-kilometer mass transit system that is planned to connect Clark, Pampanga to Calamba, Laguna.

With 58 eight-car train sets, it is expected to ferry up to 800,000 passengers daily and halve travel time from Clark Airport to Calamba to less than 2 hours from the current 4 hours.

In a statement, the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDEV) said the total estimated cost of the operations and maintenance contract is P229.32 billion. 

The pre-operations period will run from March 2026 until July 2027.

The concession period for Phase 1, which spans 13 stations from Clark International Airport to Valenzuela, will be from December 2027 until September 2028. The Department of Transportation (DOTr) earlier announced that this segment of the rail will open in 2027, but has since pushed it back to 2028.

Meanwhile, the concession period for the partial operations of Phase 2, which runs to Nichols with an additional segment from Alabang to Calamba, will start from October 2028 until December 2031.

“Full operations are expected to begin in January 2032,” the DOTr said.

DEPDEV Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the North-South Commuter Railway is a major step toward faster, greener, and more connected transportation for Filipinos.

“At the same time, it will promote green and commercial development along its corridors,” Balisacan added.

Aside from the railway project, the ED also approved the midterm update of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028.

The DEPDEV said that the update “refines and recalibrates the country’s key policies, strategies, programs, and legislative priorities to ensure alignment with evolving economic conditions and development goals.”

The agency said it will get comments from other government bureaus before it finalizes the plan, then release this to the public by the end of July 2025.