NorthRail coaches to run on biodiesel

MALOLOS CITY – Train coaches that will ply the double-track, 32-kilometer North­Rail starting 2010 will be powered by biodiesel.

Jose Cortez, president of the North Luzon Railways Corp. (NorthRail), told The STAR that the first 28 diesel motor units that will serve the railway project will initially be powered by biodiesel.

Cortez said the government’s biofuels law augurs well for the NorthRail project, noting that thousand of hectares of land in Nueva Ecija are already planted with jathropa whose oil could be processed into biodiesel.

He said government agencies have also expressed interest to convert his 4,000-hectare property in Surigao into a jathropa plantation.

Cortez said the NorthRail coaches can also run on electricity.

Conceived in the mid-90s, the NorthRail project will link the cities of Caloocan and Malolos in Bulacan, and eventually Angeles City in Pampanga, for a total of 75 kilometers, using the right of way of the Philippine National Railways (PNR).

Cortez said the project will boost local economies and provide mass transport to some 150,000 passengers daily in its initial operations and about 350,000 passengers on its 11th year.

Two years ago, some 30,000 families in Caloocan and Malolos was relocated to in-town resettlement sites to give way to the project.

However, work on the project has been slow. At present, only about seven percent of the 32-kilometer NorthRail has been completed.

President Arroyo has ordered NorthRail to fast-track the project before she steps down from office three years from now.

Cortez, however, said they are doing everything to speed up the project, but there are certain things beyond their control.

For instance, he said Chinese contractors have brought in steel that does not conform to Philippine standards.

He added that there were also problems with the NorthRail design as it took a Chinese institute tapped by the contractors too long to come up with it.

But Cortez and Dennis Jugueta, NorthRail vice president for engineering, said the contractors already have a preliminary design.

Cortez said the design came on installments, as certain segments of the NorthRail are too narrow for the double-track railway, which requires a width of at least 15 meters.

Meanwhile, Cortez said they have a self-imposed deadline to “have all the land that we need” by the end of October.

Jugueta said NorthRail has the money to compensate owners of lots to be affected by the railway project.

If negotiations fail, he said they might be forced to expropriate the land beside the old PNR right-of-way in favor of NorthRail.