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Feature New Urban Transit Systems The Metro Manila LRT System— A Historical Perspective Gary L. Satre Filipinas to operate the concession economic reforms, conspired to slow de- Introduction awarded by the government. The velopment of the Philippines, particularly Malacañang Line was not built and was Luzon, the archipelago’s largest island. Long before light rail transit (LRT) vehicles replaced by the Malabon Line. These five While other countries were in the throes started gliding above Metro Manila road routes became popular with commuters. of the Industrial Revolution and the wave traffic, streetcars were trundling past side- The Manila-Malabon Line was the first of mercantilism, Spain lagged behind. As walks, accompanied by the clip-clop of to be finished, opening for business on early as 1842, a study mission headed horses. 20 October 1888. All five were con- by Don Sinibaldo de Mas came to the Just prior to the arrival of rail in the city, structed between 1885 and 1889. The Philippines to find the best way to carry up to the early 1880s, three types of first tranvias were horse-drawn omni- out reforms—reforms later promoted by horse-drawn carriages served this distant buses for 12 seated and 8 standing pas- Filipinos like Dr Jose Rizal and his con- outpost of the Spanish empire. The sengers. The system was 16.3-km temporaries, known collectively as the carruaje, the most expensive, was four- long—slightly longer than today’s only Propagandists. wheeled and drawn by two horses. The operating LRT line. The 1890s were turbulent years for the quiles had two wheels and was drawn While four lines were horse-drawn, the Spanish colony. The clamored-for re- by one horse so it was cheaper to ride. Malabon ran on steam. Some 4 years forms prompted Rizal to pen two novels, Its close cousin, the calesa, can still be later, the Manila Railroad Company, the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, seen plying the streets of Binondo, one country’s first long-distance rail line north required reading in schools today. of the oldest parts of the city. The often to Dagupan, 196 km away, started op- Though fiction, the stories were too close dilapidated and dirty carromata charged eration. So strictly speaking, the first to the truth for the Spanish to tolerate. the lowest fare. steam railroad in the islands was a mod- Eventually, Rizal was charged with sedi- est streetcar! Malabon’s transfer points tion and executed in 1896—four years were Tondo, Maypajo, a working-class after the Manila-Dagupan railroad was Arrival of Tranvia neighborhood in the suburb of Caloocan completed. Less than 18 months later, and Dulu, at the north end of that com- Filipinos declared their independence In 1878, Leon Monssour, an official of munity. from Spain. The revolution to assert that the Department of Public Works, submit- The long communication line between claim soon followed. ted a proposal to Madrid for a streetcar Madrid and Manila, plus much delayed system. Apparently inspired by the sys- tems in New York and Paris, Monssour envisioned a five-line network with a central station outside the walls of Intramuros, the fortress-like seat of Span- ish power in the Philippines. From Plaza San Gabriel in Binondo, the lines were to run to Intramuros via the Puerte de Espania (today’s Jones Bridge), to Malate Church, Malacañang (where the Philip- pine President now lives and works), and Sampaloc and Tondo, large districts north of the Pasig River today. The proposal found favor with the government, but it had to wait for an entrepreneur’s initia- tive. That entrepreneur was Jocobo Zobel de Zangroniz. Together with Spanish engi- neer Luciano M. Bremon and Madrid banker Adolfo Bayo, in 1882, the three formed La Compañia de Tranvias de Circa 1890s horse-drawn tranvia in Manila with San Sebastian Church in background (Meralco) Copyright © 1998 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Japan Railway & Transport Review 16 • June 1998 33 New Urban Transit Systems New Colonizers Meanwhile, the Americans were also at war with Spain. After winning the con- flict and claiming the Philippines under the Treaty of Paris, US forces soon arrived. Early in 1899, war (some called it an in- surrection) between the Filipinos and the Americans broke out. The Spanish im- print was already etched indelibly on the Philippine landscape, and by the turn of the century, an air of uncertainty charac- terized everyday conversation as Filipi- nos wondered what life would be like under the new colonizers. Transition for Tranvia Open-sided streetcar on Escolta, Manila’s original business and financial district in 1910s (Squires, Bingham and Co., Manila) By 1902, La Compañia had long since stopped expanding or improving its sys- electric power and transportation net- Three days later, a New Jersey company tem. An average of only 10 streetcars works. Although publicized in newspa- was established which eventually be- plied the five lines daily. This was a far pers in America and the Philippines as came the Manila Electric Railroad and cry from the hourly service that provided well as in a leading US railway journal, Light Company—better known as 14 runs in each direction on the Malabon only one bid was submitted. On 24 Meralco. Today, Meralco is still in the Line alone. March 1903, the Municipal Board of electric power business in Metro Manila One year later, Manila city officials Manila passed Ordinance 44, accepting and neighboring provinces. Later, the blamed slow economic growth and the bid of Charles M. Swift of Detroit. Philippine Commission allowed Meralco population congestion to ‘the antiquated horse-car system and the poorly con- structed, unsatisfactory, and generally undesirable system of public vehicles’, to quote from their official report. These leaders reasoned that with improved transport, the railroad was specifically named, ‘many of those now paying high rents for small and unhealthy quarters will take advantage of this quick trans- portation and secure comfortable dwell- ings in better localities’. Birth of Electric Streetcar The Philippine Commission on 20 Octo- ber 1902 passed a law that set into mo- tion franchises to be awarded to bidders for the construction and operation of Circa 1920s enclosed streetcar on Pasay-Rizal Line (Meralco) 34 Japan Railway & Transport Review 16 • June 1998 Copyright © 1998 EJRCF. All rights reserved. to take over the properties of La Compañia de Tranvias. Meralco paid a small fee for its streetcars to La Compañia’s lines. Swift was now under a deadline. He had 6 months to start building his systems and 20 months to get the job done. Ordinance 44 specified 12 lines. Today’s LRT Line 1 closely follows the Meralco route to Pasay south of Manila and the Santa Cruz route (See Fig. 1 on p. 39). LRT Line 2, now under construction, also adheres fairly well to the original lines Meralco laid down. With the exception of the Binondo and Intramuros areas, the network was double-tracked and powered by an over- head catenary of 500 V maximum. The track was standard gauge. By 1913, Meralco had completed nine of the 12 lines, still called the tranvia by Workers preparing roof of Santolan Road Station on LRT Line 3 (EDSA MRT Project) commuters. Swift under another fran- chise granted in 1906, was also operat- Cruz, Santa Mesa and Santa Ana) led di- Eisenhower observed that the city was the ing a 9.8-km extension line from Paco to rectly to outlying cockpits in suburban second-most destroyed, after Warsaw in Fort McKinley and Pasig. The operator, La Loma, San Juan and San Pedro de Poland. the Manila Suburban Railway, later Macati respectively’. Cockfighting was At the war’s end came the independence merged in 1919 to form the Manila Elec- and still is a popular form of gambling. promised by the Americans in 1935, and tric Company. The extension line was He concluded, ‘From the point of view the task of rebuilding the city and nation. one of the most profitable in the Meralco of city-wide commuter service, com- Necessity and resourcefulness teamed up system. merce and cockfighting, the Manila elec- to put the tranvia out of business. Meralco’s lines crossed the Manila Rail- tric tranvia was indeed a complete system Meralco concentrated on restoring elec- road Company’s lines (now the Philippine serving the city by the end of the first tricity to the city. Meanwhile Filipino National Railways (PNR)) at three points. decade of the 20th century’. ingenuity came to the fore. Using what Sometimes, I go to Blumentritt Station on As the road network improved, Meralco was available, numerous army jeeps were the LRT just to see a PNR commuter train introduced electric- and gasoline-pow- pressed into service, becoming the crawl directly under the elevated track as ered bus services in the 1930s. The com- jeepney transport system that continues I wait for an LRT train to approach its sta- pany also promoted the use of electric to serve large sections of the metropolis. tion of the same name, 5 or so meters appliances such as radios and refrigera- Many of today’s jeepney routes in Ma- above. LRT Line 2 will cross the PNR at tors. The tranvia continued running but nila follow the old tranvia lines. It is said Santa Mesa in another repeat of history. stopped expanding. that the jeepney is the most photographed The Santa Ana tranvia crossed not far from object in Metro Manila. However, to- today’s PNR Paco Station, currently un- day, there are signs that King Jeepney is der renovation. War Takes Its Toll slowly being replaced by other forms of Dr Leonardo Q.

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