MRT Line 7 (Metro Manila)
The Metro Rail Transit Line 7, also known as Mass Rail Transit Line 7, MRT Line 7 or MRT-7, is a rapid transit line under construction in the Philippines. When completed, the line will be long, with 14 stations, and the first line to have a third rail electrification. The line runs in a northeast–southwest direction, beginning at San Jose del Monte, Bulacan up to the North Triangle Common Station in North Avenue, Quezon City. It will be the second line to use heavy metro cars after LRT Line 2, which was opened in 2003.
First planned in 2001 and approved in 2004, the 25-year concession agreement was signed in 2008 between the Philippine government and the project's original proponent, Universal LRT Corporation. However, construction has been repeatedly delayed due to right-of-way issues. The project was re-approved in 2013, while funding for the project was obtained in 2016. Construction on the line began the following year and is slated to partially open by 2026 due to route realignment. The project will cost an estimated , with additional plans laid for capacity expansion to accommodate the possible increase in passenger ridership in the future.
It is integrated with the public transit system in Metro Manila, and passengers also take various forms of road-based public transport, such as buses, to and from a station to reach their intended destination.
History
Early planning and delays
The 1993 Updated Traffic and Transport Management Plan proposed Line 4, spanning from Welcome Rotonda to Batasan, entirely in Quezon City, for. A year later, the origins of the proposed route came when the original Line 4 was conceptualized by the presidency of Fidel V. Ramos through a study by SOFRETU, a French firm. Meanwhile, Spanish firms such as Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, Entrecanales y Tavora, and Cubiertas y MZOV and Halcrow also participated in the study. A year later, Ayala Land and a consortium of French proposed a line that was to be known as LRT Line 4.The LRT-4 was supposed to run from Old Bilibid in Manila and traverse along España Boulevard, Quezon Avenue, Elliptical Road, and Commonwealth Avenue before ending at Batasan in Quezon City for the first segment with its length of 15.1 km, while the depot was to be located near the University of the Philippines Diliman. Also, there is a plan to extend to Quirino Highway in Novaliches for 7 kilometers. This was also supposed to have a rolling stock of 5-car light rail vehicles as its rolling stock. The project was approved numerous times in 1995 and first passed in 1998 with a cost of ₱16 billion in budget. It was planned to be done in 1999; however, the plan would be scrapped as the original proposal status was lost in 2003.
As part of the Metro Manila Urban Transportation Integration Study published by the Japan International Cooperation Agency in 1999, which included the Line 4 plan, it called for the construction of a elevated railway between Recto Avenue in Manila and Novaliches in Quezon City. A branch line, which would either be an automated guideway transit or busway, would have shuttle commuters to and from San Mateo, Rizal. This proposal would be later split into MRT-7 and the MRT Line 8 proposal. The section of this route between the Quezon Memorial Circle and Novaliches became Line 7 while the rest of the proposed line became Line 8.
On August 27, 2001, an early proposal of the MRT-7 project was submitted to the Department of Transportation and Communications. When the MRT-7 was proposed, they overlapped the Quezon Memorial Circle to Batasan section, passing along Commonwealth Avenue of the former LRT-4 proposal. The Investment Coordination Committee of the National Economic and Development Authority first approved a version of the MRT-7 project in March 2004; this initial approval was provisional and contingent on the project's impact on the government's deficit reduction program. It had been submitted as an unsolicited proposal under the build–operate–transfer scheme by the Universal LRT Corporation, a consortium consisting of Alstom, EEI Corporation, Tyco Electronics, and others. NEDA subsequently authorized the $1.2 billion project's construction the following August, citing the proponents' willingness to comply with the ICC's requirements, with construction slated to begin in 2005 and a targeted opening date in 2007. In October 2004, Universal LRT Corporation signed an agreement with the Manila Banking Corporation to purchase of property in Bulacan for ₱1 billion, stating it would develop this property to complement the rail line.
Universal LRT Corporation, later renamed to what is now SMC-Mass Rail Transit 7 Incorporated, a subsidiary of San Miguel Corporation was selected by the Department of Transportation and Communications to build the line in 2008. The concession agreement of the project was signed on June 18, 2008. Construction of the line should have commenced in January 2010, but was postponed several times.
In May 2012, the joint venture of Marubeni Corporation and DMCI was awarded a construction contract. However, after years of delays, SMC planned to conduct a second round of bidding in 2015, due to revised construction cost assumptions.
The current project was approved on November 21, 2013, by the NEDA board, chaired by President Benigno Aquino III, and the project was developed through a public-private partnership. It has an indicative cost of ₱62.7 billion.
In the 2014 JICA study, titled Roadmap for Transport Infrastructure Development for Metro Manila and Its Surrounding Areas, they proposed a version of the plan, from Fairview Center Mall to North Avenue. It is proposed that Line 7 should be extended to inside EDSA along Quezon Avenue to Recto. The intended layout is expected to measure 17.5 kilometers.
The Department of Finance issued the terms of financial guarantee for the line in 2014, and financial closure for the project was achieved in February 2016. On January 22, 2016, Hyundai Rotem won the US$440.2 million contract with SMC-Mass Rail Transit 7 Incorporated to supply 108 train cars, signalling, communication and power supply systems.
Construction
Soil testing and surveying, including pre-construction related activities, were conducted in February 2016. SMC tapped the consortium of Hyundai Rotem and EEI Corporation as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor in the same year. On April 20, 2016, 15 years after initial development began, the project broke ground, with President Benigno Aquino III leading the ceremony. The line was expected to be finished by 2019, but was repeatedly pushed back because of right-of-way issues regarding the acquisition of a land for the San Jose del Monte station, depot, and the intermodal transport terminal.More than a year after the groundbreaking ceremony was held, construction on the line officially started on August 15, 2017, and has resulted in lane closures and heavy traffic along Commonwealth Avenue and Quirino Highway, both in Quezon City. The project also includes construction of a highway from the NLEX Bocaue Interchange, up to the proposed intermodal transport terminal located near San Jose del Monte station.
Groundbreaking for Batasan station was held on October 7, 2017, while the excavation for the underground guideway at Quezon Memorial Circle is ongoing as of November 2017. Construction of the station and rail track along North Avenue began on January 22, 2018.
Nearly two years since the start of the construction of MRT-7, works at the depot commenced on November 26, 2019, according to a statement by the DOTr. After two years of court hearings and appeals to obtain a site, the original location of the depot in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan was moved to Quirino Highway in Barangay Greater Lagro, Quezon City. The relocation was found optimal for right-of-way, operational reliability, and maintenance. The depot site was approved by Arthur Tugade on June 29, 2019, and the DOTr offered to buy the property from lot owners Century Properties Group, Inc. at the current market value, which was appraised by a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas-accredited independent property appraiser. Construction works at the depot started on May 31, 2022, after the land area was cleared.
Originally, the site in Bulacan was subject to a legal case after the property owner questioned the expropriation at the Malolos Regional Trial Court Branch 11. If it was pushed through, the cost of the project would have multiplied ninefold from ₱67.105 million to ₱598.905 million. Transport Assistant Secretary Goddes Hope Oliveros-Libiran stated that it would take forever to resolve the case and it will no longer be pursued. The case in Bulacan has prompted San Miguel to conduct a scheduled partial operation of the line from North Avenue to a station in Fairview in 2021.
On April 14, 2023, DOTr, SMC, and the Quezon City government broke ground for pre-construction works along West Avenue, where an elevated turnback guideway would be built.
, the project is 69.86% complete. In 2022, DOTr planned to conduct demonstration runs in 2023 and full operations by 2024–2025. This was later deemed no longer feasible, with DoTr Project Management Service Director Eduardo D. Mangalili citing the completion of the depot as the main factor. It now targets to open 12 stations from North Triangle to Sacred Heart by December 2025 instead, with Tala station following by 2026.
However, the right-of-way issues, especially in San Jose del Monte, continue to delay the project. In May 2024, the local government of SJDM requested that the station and alignment along Quirino Highway be diverted. The area where the station was supposed to be built is "too tight and many buildings will be affected", according to Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista. SJDM Mayor Arthur Robes suggested to divert the station to a bypass instead of Quirino Highway.
On April 13, 2025, scaffolding along West Avenue, Quezon City collapsed. No one was hurt, but the incident affected nearby electric cables.
, NEDA states that the project is now 78.63% complete and were informed during a field inspection that test runs are scheduled for April 2025. The new target for partial operation is in 2026 while the target for full operation is still in 2027.
As of June 2025, the MRT‑7 project is approximately 83% complete and is on track for partial operations in early 2027.