The new LRT-1 trainsets are coming to a station near you.
On Wednesday, July 19, the Light Rail Manila Corporation (LRMC) unveiled the first trainset in an event attended by President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos in LRT-1’s depot in Pasay City.
The first batch that consists of 20 trainsets, were manufactured in Spain and Mexico and delivered to the country in 2021. Each trainset will also have a capacity of little less than 1,400 passengers.
One trainset is also equal to four light rail vehicles (LRVs), which means there are now 80 LRVs being prepared to be deployed. LRMC says it will do so in a manner that one trainset will debut from tomorrow until December 2023. Currently, there are still 10 trainsets or 40 LRVs that are still in the process of being delivered between this year until late 2024.
By the fourth quarter next year, LRMC also aims to make all the new trains operational in time for the opening of the first phase of the line’s extension to Cavite. The first phase will be seven stations from Redemptorist station in Baclaran to Dr. Santos station, both in Parañaque City. As for the stations toward Bacoor, those are expected to be completed in 2027.
With the new trains and extension, the line is expected to service 800,000 passengers a day, quoting President Marcos.
The new generation trains will be the latest addition to LRT-1’s fleet of trains, which has 3 generations in rolling stock. The first gen trains began operating in 1984, in tandem with the line’s opening and were manufactured in Belgium. The second entered service in 1998 and came from South Korea. As for the third that debuted in 2008, these trains came from Japan.
The debut of the ‘Gen 4’ train is expected to happen at the Baclaran station in Parañaque at 4:30 am on Thursday.