PNR North Main Line
The PNR North Main Line is one of the two trunk lines of the Philippine National Railways in the island of Luzon, the other being the PNR South Main Line. The line during its maximum extent led to various cities and municipalities in Central Luzon and the Ilocos Region.
The project was originally proposed in 1875 during the Spanish era, and was constructed in stages between the 1880s and the 1890s as the Ferrocarril de Manila a Dagupan. The line was opened to Dagupan, Pangasinan on November 24, 1892. Further extensions to the line reached as far as Bacnotan, La Union with passenger trains terminating at San Fernando station in the provincial capitol. It also briefly reached Sudipen near the provincial border with Ilocos Sur during World War II but was later dismantled in 1945.
Services peaked in the 1960s and the early 1970s until several factors such as fierce competition with the national highway system, increasing maintenance costs, natural disasters and the 1997 Asian financial crisis eventually led to the closure of the line in the late 1990s. The line only served as a connection for trains returning to the Caloocan depot. After 21 years of inactivity, services on the North Main Line resumed on August 1, 2018, with the reopening of Solis station in Tondo, Manila. More stations opened for the next few months with the latest being on December 3 that year.
Like its counterpart to the south, the line is also slated to be rebuilt. The North–South Commuter Railway is being constructed in the area of Bulacan. Once completed, it will connect Tutuban station with Clark International Airport in Pampanga, and New Clark City in Tarlac. To its west of the line is the Subic–Clark railway which will initially be built for freight trains between the Subic Special Economic and Freeport Zone and Clark Airport with an extension to New Clark City. Other railroad lines that are separate from the NSCR are collectively referred as the PNR North Long Haul. Currently, this last project is still being proposed.
History
The railroad network in Luzon, predecessor to today's Philippine National Railways, was first proposed on August 6, 1875. To the north of Manila are two main lines, one leading to Laoag, Ilocos Norte and the other leading to Tuguegarao, Cagayan. The system was approved by the Spanish East Indies government in 1880, but construction did not commence until 1887 due to the lack of a concession operator. Unlike the South Main Line which was built to its planned terminus in Legazpi, Albay, the North Main Line network never reached its intended termini in Laoag for the northwestern line and Tuguegarao for the northeastern line.Spanish era
The Manila Railway Company, Limited was created on June 1, 1887, and construction began. Initial site inspection was presided by Lieutenant Colonel José Gago y Palomo, who was renowned for building fortifications and trails in Mindanao for Spanish Army General Valeriano Weyler. According to Gary Satre on an investigative article in 1999, the use of 3 feet, 6 inches gauge was made both as a cost-cutting measure and to allow tighter curves to suit the island's mountainous terrain. One of the main obstacles in the construction stage is crossing the Rio Grande de Pampanga, after which a box truss bridge was built.At the same time, several tank locomotives were ordered by the Manila Railway. This began with an order for 2 Manila Railway Manila class locomotives in 1886 from English manufacturer Hunslet Engine Company. These were later named Manila and Dagupan after the line's two planned termini. Between 1888 and 1890, thirty Manila Railway Dagupan class locomotives were ordered from Neilson and Company and Dübs and Company. Various passenger railcars and boxcars were also ordered from unknown British manufacturers.
Prior to the opening of the full length of the line to Pangasinan, José Rizal was one of the most popular commuters of the early Ferrocarril de Manila a Dagupan. He used the line to recruit potential La Liga Filipina members prior to his exile. On February 23, 1892, he took a train to San Fernando station in Pampanga. He then commuted to various other locations in Central Luzon, until he took his last train with a trip to Tarlac on June 26. He wrote that the trip took 5 hours, 40 minutes. This was 2 weeks prior to his exile to Dapitan. On November 24, 1892, the line to Dagupan was inaugurated.
Revolutionary and American era
Manila Railway trains were used by both the Philippine Revolutionary Army and the United States Army forces during the Philippine–American War. President Emilio Aguinaldo and his cabinet ministers used First Class car Z4 as their primary method of travel on the railroad, especially during their retreat to northern Luzon. On the other hand, the advancing American forces used the Manila Railway to carry freight and Army soldiers. Trains were also used as mobile hospitals, carrying soldiers who were either injured or killed during the fighting. A river bridge in Bamban, Tarlac was destroyed along with one of the Dagupan class locomotives used by the US Army. This is to prevent the American advance to Central Luzon. However, the efforts to sabotage the network were futile as Filipino forces were eventually defeated and President Aguinaldo was captured in 1901.After the war, the network was repaired and expanded. The British owners were still allowed to operate for the following years, having reorganized into the Manila Railway Company Limited. Meanwhile, an American operator named the Manila Railroad Company Corporation was established in New Jersey that same year.
By 1909, the Manila Railroad took control of the system, although Horace L. Higgins still leads as its general manager in the country and the Annual Report was still prepared with British conventions. New lines were defined by Insular Government Act No. 1905 as the Northern Lines. This include the Manila–Dagupan main line, the Antipolo branch of the Southern Lines, the Cabanatuan branch, the Fort Stotsenburg branch, and shortline railroads serving the Port of Manila and within Dagupan.
The Baguio Special, the Philippines' first named express train service, was inaugurated in 1911. Originally only stopping at Damortis in Rosario, La Union with a luxury car service heading for the hill station of Baguio, this train started the scramble for a direct rail service. Construction for the Aringay–Baguio line started in 1914 but was never finished and the tunnel leading to the city was never completed, citing British involvement in World War I as the reason. This later made the Manila Railway's remaining Philippine unit to be absorbed into the Manila Railroad on January 8, 1917, with general manager Horace L. Higgins replaced by Colonel Henry Bayard McCoy.
Under McCoy's leadership, the Manila Railroad modernized its locomotive fleet with the purchase of several American-built tender locomotives over the next few years. Meanwhile, the American Car and Foundry provided both regular passenger and sleeping cars, starting with the new Baguio Night Special service. After his death in 1923, he was then succeeded by Jose Paez, the first Filipino general manager of the company. Paez continued the fleet modernization started by McCoy as well as expanded the network to its established termini at San Fernando, La Union on March 16, 1929, and a seamless network to the Bicol Region was opened on May 8, 1938.
World War II and Japanese occupation
Although the line was damaged after the First Philippines campaign during World War II, the Japanese briefly extended it to Sudipen near the La Union–Ilocos Sur border, some north of San Fernando. After the Second Philippines campaign, the line has been closed. The line was eventually dismantled so that track materials would give way for the reconstruction of the Main Line South's network. Additionally, the Aringay–Tuba section of the Baguio line was closed and the 300 class rack tank locomotives used for this service were scrapped in 1945. However, the tracks remained by as late as the 1960s and were built over by paddy fields.Post-war era
Only over a third of the Manila Railroad system was usable after the war, amounting to. Around eighty percent of its rolling stock were also destroyed. The system was eventually rebuilt, but not all branch lines were restored.In 1951, Ramon Magsaysay was appointed as general manager of the Manila Railroad. Under Magsaysay's term as general manager despite being only three months, made the company extend its network to Bacnotan. He would also preside the beginning of the Cagayan Valley extension. Magsaysay later became the President of the Philippines in 1953 and under his term, the Manila Railroad underwent another fleet modernization. Its entire steam locomotive fleet will be replaced by diesel locomotives starting in 1954. In August 1956, the modernization has been completed and all steam locomotives were relegated to maintenance work or retired altogether. Yards along the North Main Line in Pampanga became the storage location of these locomotives until they were all scrapped in the 1960s and onwards.
PNR era
By 1964, the Manila Railroad was reorganized and renamed into the present Philippine National Railways. The renaming took inspiration from the Japanese National Railways. The early days of the PNR was also claimed to be the agency's golden years. While operations were smaller in scale to its southern counterpart, the North Main Line was still a popular means of travel leading out of Metro Manila. The line sought an estimated daily ridership of 3,000 passengers.Decline and closure
The 1970s were the beginning of the decline of operations on the North Main Line. The Cagayan Valley extension was never fully realized and PNR trains only terminated at San Jose, Nueva Ecija. The tunnel boring machines were then sold-off as debt payment for the project, and track work has been reverted into roads. A later investigation found that the Marcos government transferred the funds to the construction of the Maharlika Highway. The 1980s started the closure of the line due to decreasing ridership. A bridge collapse in 1984 ordered the closure of the services to the Ilocos Region. The line was then reduced to Caloocan in 1988, leaving the South Main Line the only operational intercity line at that point. There was a brief return of a commuter rail service to Malolos as part of the Metrotren program between 1990 and 1997.Since then, the Ramos administration took advantage of the recently closed North Main Line to revitalize plans to electrify the commuter rail service in Metro Manila. The project was originally proposed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency in 1978. This was named as the Manila–Clark rapid railway project with the assistance of Spain. Construction continued as the Northrail project during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, but stopped during the presidency of Benigno Aquino III due to disagreements with its Chinese backers. The project was never completed and ended like the failed Hopewell Project of Bangkok, Thailand. It was not until the 2010s when the present form was realized as the North–South Commuter Railway.
Another railway project was also proposed during the late 1990s as part of the Philippines 2000 program under President Ramos. In 1995, the Manila–Rizal–Laguna–Quezon Growth Corridor was proposed and the MARILAQUE Commission was established for the development of the area. They were tasked by the national government to implement the Silangan Railway Express 2000 project. The line would have connected the northern half of Metro Manila to Rizal similar to the pre-war Antipolo and Marikina lines. It would then be extended eastward towards eastern Rizal province and northern Quezon, both more rural than the areas once plied by the two aforementioned lines. While plans continued under the term of President Joseph Estrada with the Japan International Cooperation Agency by as late as 1999, it never materialized and was not considered to be built by future administrations.