The Department of Transportation (DOTr) expects to award the operations and maintenance (O&M) contract for the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) by the fourth quarter of 2026, a key milestone for one of the country’s biggest and most important transport projects.
Under the agency’s timeline, bid documents will be prepared by April 2026, with bidding set for July to August. Bid evaluation and negotiations are scheduled from August to September, leading to a target contract award in October 2026.
The anticipated award is seen as crucial to ensuring the timely and efficient operation of the 147-kilometer rail system, which will link Clark International Airport in Pampanga to Calamba, Laguna. Once fully operational, the NSCR is expected to cut travel time between Clark and Calamba to under 2.5 hours, from about four hours by road.
Strong interest has already been shown by major local and international firms, including railway operators and infrastructure companies from Japan, France, and the Philippines. The DOTr said this reflects the improved investment climate created by the new Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Code, under which the NSCR O&M tender was launched in October 2025—one of the first major projects covered by the new law.
The NSCR will feature the country’s first Airport Express Service, linking Clark to Makati in under an hour and to Alabang in about 1 hour and 15 minutes, as well as through-train operations with the Metro Manila Subway.
The 35-station system is expected to create about 350,000 jobs during construction and operations and serve nearly one million passengers daily at full capacity. Partial operations between Valenzuela and Malolos are targeted to begin in December 2027, with the Malolos-to-Clark segment expected to open by October 2028.
