Philippines: Photos of the eight-car train being unloaded at the port of Manila were shared by the Philippines’ Department of Transportation, the customer for the rolling stock. Once customs clearance is complete, the train will head to the depot in Valenzuela City, with testing due to start next year.
The rolling stock is built on the Sustina platform. At 160 m long, the EM1000 has a total capacity of 2,266 passengers, with 396 seats and 24 wheelchair spaces. It has a top speed of 160 km/h with 0.92 m/s² acceleration, though it will run at up to 120 km/h in service.
Unloading of J-TREC EM1000 electric train cars at the port of Manila. Source: Department of Transportation Philippines
Each train has four motor cars and four intermediate cars, with room to grow the formation to ten cars. The first batch uses IGBT-transistor traction converters, while the second switches to silicon carbide. As with other Sustina-platform trains, the carbodies are built from lightweight stainless steel using J-TREC’s patented technology.
Unloading of J-TREC EM1000 electric train cars at the port of Manila. Source: Department of Transportation Philippines
The consortium of J-TREC and Sumitomo signed a JPY 72.5 bln ($610 mln) contract for 38 trains (304 cars) in March 2022. An earlier order, placed in July 2019, covered 13 trainsets (104 cars) for JPY 25 bln ($230 mln). Two trains from that batch have been delivered so far.
The trains will run on the 147 km, 1.5 kV DC North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR), on 1,435 mm gauge track. The 36-station line is meant to improve transport links across Greater Manila, with the first section due to open at the end of 2027 and the full line by 2032.
