San Miguel Corp. (SMC) will receive the first batch of trains for the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 7 next week, the conglomerate’s chief said on Wednesday.
Ramon S. Ang, the company’s president, said SMC will take delivery of two train sets from South Korean firm Hyundai Rotem, after the trains have been inspected and tested by SMC’s adviser Korea Railroad Corp. (Korail).
“The timely arrival of these brand new, high-quality trains from South Korea—known as one of the world’s best train and rail systems builders—is such a welcome development, and I believe holds a lot of significance,” he said.
“At a time when many are feeling uncertain about our country’s future because of the pandemic, this shows that the job of nation-building, continues; that the work of improving our infrastructure, boosting our economic growth prospects, and investing in our country’s brighter future, also doesn’t stop—especially for us in San Miguel.”
Each train set is 65.45 meters long—or well over the entire length of an Olympic-size swimming pool, which is 50 meters.
More trains are set to arrive in the following months, up to next year, Ang said. The company ordered 36 train sets or a total of 108 train cars from Hyundai Rotem.
Currently, MRT-7 is at 54 percent completion rate with installation of bored piles, girders, and other foundational works on a significant portion of the project, already completed.
“Right now, construction activities on the guideway and the stations are ongoing. Electronic and mechanical works also continues. As we said before, the MRT-7 project is in many ways more difficult and complex than even our recently-competed Skyway Stage 3—which in itself is an engineering feat. This is because MRT-7 has added complexities such as electric power systems, computer and communications systems, signaling systems, and automatic fare systems, among others,” Ang said.
He noted that there are “many causes of delay” such as the restrictions caused by the pandemic and issues on right of way delivery.
“But as with all SMC projects, we apply 110 percent effort to all the areas we can work on, so as to minimize delays. The most important thing is we don’t stop, we keep on progressing,” Ang said.