MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Transportation hopes to launch two rail projects – Metro Rail Transit Line 7 or MRT-7 and the Philippine National Railway (PNR) North-South Commuter Railway – by next year, the DOTr announced.
Acting Transportation Secretary Giovanni Lopez said he is “quite confident” that the MRT-7 would meet the DOTr target of “full operations by the second quarter of 2027, or earlier.”
Lopez said he has appealed to San Miguel Corp., which handles the public-private partnership contract for MRT-7, to finish the rail project at an earlier schedule.
The MRT-7 is composed of 12 stations from North Caloocan to North Avenue in Quezon City and could carry a daily average of 500,000 passengers.
Meanwhile, Lopez said a segment of the PNR North-South Commuter Railway project from Valenzuela City to Malolos City in Bulacan would be open by 2027.
He noted that the project is 90 percent complete with the remaining 10 percent slowed by right of way issues, which the DOTr would resolve “by the second quarter of 2026.”
By Ghio Ong
January 25, 2026 12:00 am
