MAKATI CITY – “By all means, you can use it.”
Thus quickly replied business tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan when asked by Puntoif he would allow the use of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) for the high-speed train linking Clark International Airport (CIA) in Pampanga to the Metro Manila area, including the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
“It’s yours,” added Pangilnan, chairman of the Manila North Tollways Corporation (MNTC) which operates the 84-kilometer NLEx through the Tollways Management Corporation (TMC).
Pangilinan stressed that Clark needs an “Airport Express” train that will ferry passengers from Metro Manila to the CIA and vice versa.
Pangilinan said that a high-speed”is enough for us” becausebullet trains similar to the ones in Japan and some European countries are “very expensive.” He added that it will take about 45 minutes for the “Airport Express” to reach its first destination in Metro Manila.
“Commuter train will have many stops while an Airport Express will have few like the one that operates in Narita (Japan).It stops only at the Tokyo terminal,” he added.
Pangilinan said it would be ideal for the “Airport Express” to have at least three stops in Metro Manila.
He identified them to be at Balintawak or somewhere in Trinoma or SM North in Quezon City, the second one to be located somewhere in Manila like Dimasalang or University of Sto. Tomas and then the last one at Buendia Avenue in Makati. A set-up, he added, that is similar to Hongkong where it is a lot easier to travel.
Pangilinan said there is a need for government to put in place inter-modal transport systems that would connect the CIA to Bulacan and Metro Manila. But he made a distinction between the Northrail which he said is a “commuter line for Filipinos” and the need to have a so-called Airport Express.
ON THE SIDE
The multi-sectoral group Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM), which has lobbying for the full development of the CIA as an international airport since the time of former President Fidel Ramos, proposed the use of the NLEx for the high-speed train to save the national government “time, money and property.”
Pangilinan said the path of the Airport Express should be “on the side and not the middle” of the highway similar to Hong Kong’s to prevent the destruction of other existing infrastructures at the NLEx.
Pangilinan earlier expressed interest in building a second terminal for CIA, planned high-speed rail system, budget terminal and city air terminal.
