CLARK FREEPORT – “No proposal whatsoever of a bullet train to link Clark to Metro Manila.”
Outgoing Clark International Airport Corporation President- CEO Victor Jose Luciano expressed surprise over a statement attributed to an official of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) dismissing a Clark-Metro bullet as “very expensive.”
Talking to newsmen at the sidelines of the opening rites for the new main gate to the Clark International Airport, Luciano said it is a “high speed train” that the Department of Transportation and Communications has been instructed by President Aquino to study.
“(Of the JICA comment), I am not sure where they got the information about a bullet train. Even in my attendance in the meetings of the DOTC as well as the cabinet cluster [for airport strategies] of the President on August 19, there was never any mention of a bullet train,” Luciano said.
Luciano clarified that there is a big difference between a bullet train, which travels as much as 250 to 300 kilometers per hour, and a high-speed train with maximum speed less than half of the former’s.
“Hindi pwede ang bullet train sa atin, magliliparan ang mga bahay sa tabi,” Luciano said. He noted that a high-speed train would be perfect for the distance between Clark and Metro Manila at an hour’s travel time. “In international airports, one hour is not a long yardstick criterion,” Luciano said.