Railways in the Philippines, April 2006

To prepare a FarRails tour to the Philippines (scheduled for Jan-Feb 2007), it was necessary to visit beforehand to find out the most up-to-date information. As always personal visits beforehand to tropical islands and other distant places are the foundation for a successful tour. These notes provide the most important information gathered on this trip, which might be helpful also for the individual traveller. The pictures from 2006 are mine while the older ones were taken by Hans Hufnagel in 1985.

Click here if you want to see the itinerary.

Click here for Philippine National Railways - PNR.

Sugar mills on Negros

The sugar industry has faced some dire years recently. Where the management wasn’t up to it the mills closed. Out of 47 mills on the Philippines only 29 are still working with one more being build new right now (but the nearby mill will then eventually close). Due to time restrictions not all sugar mills on Negros could be visited. Therefore this overview is far from complete. But it is for sure that there is no more regular use of steam engines at the mills. It is only at the Hawaiian-Philippine mill that a steam engine might be used as a spare – and that happened just once last season. That trip was more for testing the engine itself for a coming charter train than out of an operational necessity.

Survey:

The sugar mill railways were hit very hard by closures. There were several reasons:

• The farmers are free to decide what kind of crops they’re going to grow. So with the price for sugar falling world wide, many farmers switched to other crops, and they no longer have a need for a railway connection.
• Many farmers situated a long way from the mills switched to road transport. Not because it is cheaper or faster but due to other reasons: a) it is much more flexible for them because they can use all fields no matter were they are situated. With a lorry you can even reach field that are high up in the hills. b) Loading sugar cane on lorries is flexible in contrast to the fixed times when the railway brought empty wagons and fetched the loaded ones. c) the danger of sugar cane being stolen is greatly diminished, as no unguarded wagons are sitting for hours in the fields waiting to be collected.
• Inheritance: Due to the distribution of the fields between the inheritors more and more small farms were created. These small plots are not economically viable for growing sugar cane.
• The sugar mills, or at least the owners of the railways, are forced to pay a toll to the owners of the farmlands for using their property for right of way. This toll needs to be recovered by the freight rates. Some farmers ask for extortionate amounts of money for using their land while most of them are not growing sugar cane anymore, or are using lorries anyway. All fees are negotiable and have to be agreed upon every year. Highest price for the use of 100 m of farm land to be paid by Hawaiian-Philippine was 200.000 Pesos per year. That’s roughly 3.300 Euros! A price hardly recovered with the rates for transporting sugar cane, so this line is in great danger of being closed just because one farmer is trying to blackmail the railway. Still sugar cane fields are reached via this line and they are loading sugar cane on the railway, but for how long is anybody’s guess. 

Only a drastic increase in the price of diesel fuel might help the railways, but this increase will probably come when the last piece of the railways has been lifted. The increase is to slow and to steady so the farmers get used to the higher costs for transportation without it really hurting. The pain threshold is pushed higher and higher so expect to see Negros free of sugar cane railways before to long.

Central Azucarera De Bais

Bais is a rather small mill with a capacity of processing up to 3.000 tonnes of sugar cane per day. Even though it is looking a little bit rundown they invested in the mill and replaced the stationary steam engine with a Turbodyne steam turbine generator from the US. 90 kilometres out of 147 kilometres of the railway are still in operation. 

Two steam engines still exist: No 7 as a display in front of the gates, and No. 8 in the scrap yard. The railway owns 16 diesel engines, with Nos. 1 to 14 coming from Plymouth (with Cummings engines), operating in the fields, and the smaller No. 15 and 16 used as shunting engines. During harvest nine engines are used daily. The trains have normally 30 wagons, each loaded with 4 tonnes of sugar cane.

There are three different lines on the railway: One line leads 18 km to north and ends in Manjuyod Tolon, the second one to the southeast reaches the port Luka Wharf after 16 km, and the third line leads to the southwest to Pamplona Town (18 km). Both lines to the south run parallel for the first four kilometres before diverting. The numerous branches to the fields bring the total up to 90 km. Tracks are still laid “on the fly” to reach the loading points in the fields.

Only 30% of the seasonal sugar cane harvest is transported by the railway, the rest moves by lorry to the central. The harvest ended this year in May.

The local manager of the mill was pensioned in 2005. Not one successor was named but three instead! Those three divide the work and responsibilities, previously done by one person, between themselves, and have to confer on a regular basis with the mill owner on all kinds of matters and aren’t capable of deciding on their own. So the old manager came back to the mill – as a consultant!! So now they have to pay four people ... The job of the old manager is to keep the railway running and even to reactivate closed lines. He also owns sugar cane fields and is trying to get other farmers to switch to sugar cane again.

The owner of the mill is currently building a new one in Passi. Passi is located on the island of Panay. This is due more to sentimental reasons, as the owner comes from this region, where an (old) mill is located and most of the farmers don’t grow sugar cane anymore. No railway line is planned for this new mill.

Binalbagan Isabela Sugar Co. (BISCOM)

The company BISCOM was created in 1947 out of the amalgamation of the Binalbagam and Isabella mills. The once extensive railway network has been drastically cut down. Out of 20 diesel locos only 2 or 3 are still needed to handle the traffic on the ten surviving kilometres of the railway line. BISCOM is one of the bigger mills on Negros, with a capacity of processing more then 5.000 tonnes of sugar cane daily.

The last steam loco, for a time used as a memorial, has since been scrapped. The mill itself uses electric driven machinery, a stationary steam engine is said to be still in existence. This couldn’t be verified, so this is up to a visitor who is willing to apply in writing for a visiting permit at the following address:

BISCOM
Makati Office
6th floor, Legaspi Towers 200
Paseo de Roxas, Makati City
Fax: 893 37 14

The call prefix is probably 0632.

Public Relation Officer: Mr. Willie J. Montinola

San Carlos Milling Co.

This mill went bankrupt after a steady decline in 1998. Due to high loans, which were not repaid, the complete mill with its railway belongs to the omnipresent Metrobank. You need to apply there for a permit to visit the remaining rolling stock. The mill is guarded and without an official permit from Manila is off limits for visitors. The chances for a reactivation of the mill are slim, but if that should happen, the railway probably won’t go back into operation. Many farmers in this area switched from sugar cane to other crops after the mill went out of business. They removed the remaining track work from their fields and sold it as scrap. All rolling stock still exists within the mill boundaries. Some of the locomotive (even two steam locos) can be seen from the outside.

The following locomotives can be found on the premises (this information provided by one of the former engineers responsible for the transport section before 1998):

Central Azucarera De La Carlota

This mill, famous for its use of steam, has bought into several other mill companies on Negros and has a high presence on the local market. But even La Carlota couldn’t prevent farmers from delivering their products to other mills. The Southern Negros Co., which is operating a small mill between Kabankalan and Cayan, probably has been completely taken over by La Carlota.

Even if the railroad track leading to the mill was clearly used recently, the highly paid taxi driver couldn’t be convinced to make a detour of just seven kilometres to have a look at the mill. The management of the BISCOM Mill said that there is no railway, but a used railroad track seems to lead in another direction.

Nearly the whole roster of steam engines is survives:

• No. 4 plinthed as a memorial on the premises
• No. 5 scrap
• No. 100 oou
• No. 101 scrap, without axles
• No. 102 oou
• No. 103 oou
• No. 104 oou
• No. 105 oou
• No. 106 operable
• No. 107 oou, could be reconstructed

No. 108 has been sold to Bacolod (according to the head of the transportation department) to be used as a stationary display. But on the outskirts of Bacolod in a circle crossing only a 0-6-0 steam locomotive without tender could be found (with no builder plates or any other additional information). The 108 is an 0-6-2.

Nine out of eleven Diesel locomotives are still there:

The numbers for 2005/2006 are still preliminary, but the decline of the railways can be seen clearly. It’s time to think about steam powered specials in the Philippines. With just a 12% share of the whole transport volume, the railway will decline further. Just one more decision against the railway and even “the last” farmer will switch to the lorry for transporting sugar cane.

The operation is covered by two 12-hour shifts: 12:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 12:00 PM to 12:00 AM  During the early shift the trains are heading towards Ana Maria (to the east) and during the late shift all trains are run on the lines to the north (Elena), northeast (Salamanca) and south (Casalagam Nuevo). One roundtrip – empty wagons to the loading point, loading and going back to the mill – takes about five hours. The speed of the trains seldom exceeds 12 km/h.

Despite the sad numbers documenting the withdrawal of the railway tracks from the fields, La Carlota still has the best railway system for taking pictures of sugar cane trains. For tourist trains they kept one locomotive serviceable, no. 106. With some efforts they could make no. 107 serviceable as well. Because no 106 and 107 are different locomotives (0-6-0 and 0-6-2ST) we have asked for the price of an overhaul. Almost all the spare parts are on offer from local industry. The request is still pending.

I could not figure out whether there are still some stationary steam engines in the mill. The railway authorities said there are, but they were not sure. As everyone needs a special ID card for get admission, and the people employed with the transportation division don’t get these cards, none of them has seen the mill from the inside for a long time.

Hawaiian Philippine Company

Bad news first: the beautiful sky-blue steam locomotives are history! Only no. 7 is left, still dumped in the depot. It was said that this loco could be made serviceable with a few repairs. The second loco there is fully serviceable, but painted black with red decorative stripes. What does this mean (think about German Railways, if you’re familiar with the recent history)? Right – the boss of the company has changed. It’s almost a tradition that a new management will introduce a new colour scheme for their locomotives. Here is a history of the changes based on the memories of the manager of the transportation department (for more than 30 years): when he became a railwayman in the sugar mill, the locos were painted green, according to an order from the management of the mill. The next management preferred brown, so all locos were repainted brown with yellow stripes. After an intermezzo of black locomotives, the management changed again. About 20 years ago the then new management introduced the blue colour scheme. Now black again ...

Of course, for the planned tour we want to use both, the blue and the black locomotives. As the blue is not really fresh we’ll buy some cans of blue paint. For £100 the railway staff will redecorate the loco in fresh paint. We only need the agreement of management – which is still pending.

Once, the mill had a track length of 164 km. In the 1980s the railway network was served by six steam locomotives and eight diesels. Today four diesel locomotives can handle the remaining traffic. Beside the diesels, the railway is using five semi-railcars and a so-called shuttle car that is used for the transport of school boys & girls and employees of the mill.

To give you an rough idea about the costs for keeping the railway going (except the fees for using farmer’s land) here are some numbers for the harvest season of 2005/2006:

This sum exceeded the planned budget by 450,000 Pesos. This is a massive overstretching and doesn’t make it easier for the cooperative to keep the railway alive. By the way, the steam locos are not the property of the cooperative, they are still owned by the sugar mill.

According to the manager of the transport department the available locomotives are:

Steam:

• Nr. 1 oou
• Nr. 3 oou
• Nr. 4 oou
• Nr. 5 operable, black
• Nr. 6 oou
• Nr. 7 operable after repair, blue

Engine No. 2 has been sold to California. Engines No. 8 and 9 went to Hawaii for tourist railway use. All steam engines are fired with bagasse.

Diesel:

• Nr. 10
• Nr. 11
• Nr. 12 Depot
• Nr. 14
• Nr. 15
• Nr. 16 Depot
• Nr. 17 operable
• Nr. 18 Depot

The operation pattern is as follows:

• Northern line (up to loading point 45): empty train about 02:00 into the fields, loaded train returns about 14:00 hrs, load about 12 (metric) tons a wagon.
• Northwestern line: empty train around 8:00 into the fields, returns around 14:00 in the mill.
• Northeastern line: no fixed schedule for this branch, in general trains run out in the morning and return before noon, load only about four to five tons per wagon.
• Eastern line: empty train leaves the sugar mill around 02:00 in the morning, the loaded train returns around 08:00 hrs in the morning
• Southern lines: empty trains leaving the mill around 16:00 and return loaded around 02:00 in the morning
• Western line (to the harbour): 24 hours service, but only to the loading point for trucks close to the main road to Bacolod. The condition of the track beyond the main road does not allow locomotives any more. The line is served by railcars only. No sugar transport any more.

The times given above are subject to minor or more serious alternations, depending on the situation. Time has not the same importance as in Europe and Northern America. In addition they’ll adapt changes to every new harvest season. Although the mill was milling until end of April 2006, most of the sugar cane has be delivered by truck. If you want to see regular trains on this system you should best visit the mill between November and February.

The mill is using a new, big boiler (producing 200 tons of steam an hour) which serves turbines and generators. All installations are driven by electric engines, the stationary steam machinery has been scrapped years ago.

Bacolod-Murcia Milling Co. Inc.

Sad remains can still be found at the mill. A wooden office remains beside some concrete foundations. But a steam locomotive can still be found. No. 7 (0-6-0) stands where No. 6 was plinthed before.

Talisay-Silay Milling Co. Inc.

The mill has been completely demolished. Their former steam engine No. 4 was said to have been sold to Bacolod-Murcia but the engine couldn’t be found.

Lopez Sugar Corporation

The time was not sufficient to visit the mill that used to use the last Shay on Negros. We tried to find out via telephone what happened with the railway in Lopez. This was a difficult undertaking! No one at the phone knew the difference between a diesel locomotive and a steam locomotive, and they had no shadow of a clue what a Shay looks like. But according to the given loco number (they could at least read a number ...) it is very likely that there are the remains of two Shays: no. 9 and 10. Of course, none of these locomotives is serviceable, in the best case they are almost complete. These veterans have now been dumped for some 20 years.

Conclusion: A journey to the Philippines for narrow gauge railways is still worthwhile, even for a steam hauled train if you can afford it. But you should not postpone such a trip far into the future as one thing is for sure: even if the pace of life and work is somewhat slow in this country, the railway network is on the decline. Once there are no tracks into the fields anymore, there is no use left for the last remaining serviceable steam locomotives.

Philippine National Railways - PNR

The PNR suffers from the hard competition of the privately owned bus companies. The state railway was considered a relict from grandpa’s times and has totally been neglected. The privately owned railway line went bankrupt, the northern line of the state railway on Luzon island (the main island of the Philippines) has been closed. Then, in the late 1980s, the government changed its mind and restored the southern line on Luzon. But nothing has been invested since then, and the restored line is running on its last legs again.

Shortly before it was to late forever to save the railway, someone realized that in such a densely populated country as the Philippines a railway may be useful to get control over the boundless growth in road traffic. And they may have realised that their government SUVs need free roads to make driving fun, so they changed their attitude by 180 degrees. A series of giant projects has been announced to save the decayed railway and even to build new ones. They have to start almost at zero. From 1.140 km railway lines some 500 km remained serviceable. The remaining trains on this line fit in half a sheet of paper. Freight traffic is non existent!

By 1990 the only fully operational line was from Manila to Legaspi and it sees two pairs of trains a day only: Union Express T509/510 and Limited Express T588/587. The timetable:

The other 16 pairs of PNR trains are suburban trains on a 40 km long part of the railway from Manila to Carmona in the south of Manila.

From this sorry state of the railway, some surprisingly substantial and remarkable things are being supported by the politicians. Several huge projects, planned, financed and under construction by mainly Chinese, South Korean, German and Indian companies have already started. The first big project is to rebuild the northern line from Manila. It should be finished by 2007. It seems only one country is able to build up a railway that quickly: Chinese engineering companies are ruling this project.

The projects in detail:

1) North railway project with the line from Caloocan to Malolus. Owner of this line: North Luzon Railways Corporation, financier and construction: China
In a second step the line should be extended up to the Ilocus region.

2) South-Manila suburban project with a line connecting Caloocan, Alabang and Calamba. At the end of the second construction phase, the construction of a new line to the harbour of Batangas City will follow. Owner: PNR, financier: South Korea; Daewoo (South Korea) got a share of the construction work.

3) PNR main line south with the extension of the section Calamba - Legaspi and the new railway line to Matnog, owner: PNR, financier and construction: China.

4) Rebuilding the line on Panay Island between Iloilo City and Roxas City, owner: Panay Railway Corporation; since they went bankrupt they are now owned by the state, financier: Germany, France and Austria, construction: Siemens, Systra and Voest Alpine.

5) Mindanao railway project
This is a new planned railway on the so far railway-less island of Mindanao, one of the largest islands of the Philippines. The economic studies have been done by German companies (free of charge!) and suggest that a railway would give serious economic advantages to the island. Several lines are planned. All lines should be owned and run by the PNR:

a) Iligan City - Cagayan de Oro City with an extension to the harbour of Phividee
b) Iligan City - Zamboanga City
c) Cagayan de Oro City - Agusan - Surigao
d) Surigao - Davao City - General Santos City

The projects on Mindanao are financed by Germany, India and Thailand. IRCON und Siemens are the main contractors.

If these lines are built they have further projects on the main island of Luzon in mind. If the political direction does not change, and the huge projects become reality, the RNR state railway will really need to change their business attitude. They have to wake up to be able to manage a completely new and modern railway network successfully. Otherwise after the lines have been finished the condition of the railway lines will go to ruin again, and all the efforts will have no positive impact for the economy of the country and the lives of the people.

The railway has five depots and one workshop at the moment. The depot for the capital is situated in Tutuban. The railway station at Tutuban has been converted into a shopping and fun centre recently.

The workshop is in Manila-Caloocan. The other depots are in Calamba, Hondagua, Naga City and Legaspi City on the southern line, and, at the moment, one is out of use in Dagupan City on the northern line.

Only a few steam locomotives of the state railway survived. There is no railway museum in the Philippines. In Manila plinthed locos can be found in Tutuban and Tamuros. Another engine survived in Dagupan.

The slums along the railway lines in Manila are subject to demolition while they are modernising the railways. The government promised better living conditions for the poorest of the poor who are living in the railway slums. Most of the houses alongside the lines are built illegally. The inhabitants of the slums could be transferred dozens of kilometres from their current location. This will reduce their ability to find a job and, it will just shift the problem to another place, and it is not a solution for these people. In addition, relocating these people will solve the problem only temporary. New people will come soon after the old inhabitants have been expelled. Anyhow, at the moment the commuter trains rumble through the narrow aisle left for the railway between their huts. In 2007 this should be history.