There is no official plan for a high-speed railway in the Philippines, but there have been various proposals made by elected officials and the private sector.
Most of the proposals have been for a high-speed railway in Luzon. A North-South Luzon HSR was proposed in 2010 by San Miguel Corp. In 2023, Luis Raymund Villafuerte (President of the National Unity Party) proposed that the South Long Haul Railway (from Manila to South Luzon) be upgraded to a high-speed railway.
There have also been mentions of a high-speed railway in Mindanao, though this is a case of misunderstanding the definition of high-speed.
The current Mindanao rail plan will be for diesel-powered rolling stock with a top speed of 120 km/h. This will later be upgraded to an electric railway with a speed of 160 km/h. This is a higher-speed rail (or semi-high-speed railway), and not high-speed of 250 km/h and above (or 200 km/h by other definitions).
A Pan-Philippine High-Speed Railway has not been proposed, though local media has pondered if a Japanese-style bullet train from Manila to Davao could be built. Like the Pan-Philippine Highway, it would depend on bridging Luzon-Samar and Leyte-Mindanao. Bridging these two missing links would enable ground transportation across the three main island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
This page keeps track of any mention of proposed high-speed railways in the Philippines.
My take: Could the Philippines build a Pan-Philippine High-Speed Railway?
Maps
There is no official planning map for a high-speed railway in the Philippines.
In 2014, a blogger made a fantasy map of a Philippine high speed rail system:
“Here’s an imaginary map of a high speed rail network that spans the Philippines, connecting all the major cities from Laoag in the north to Tawi-Tawi way down south, and even the Tubbataha reef in the middle of the Sulu Sea.”
In 2018, this map went viral on Facebook with people thinking it was a real plan. AFP then posted that this is not a map of the Philippines’ high-speed rail system.
Links and resources
PHILIPPINES | High Speed Rail – News and discussion at SkyscraperCity.
News archive
2025
‘More optimistic than ever’: Villafuerte confident of Bicol Express rollout, Naga airport upgrade with Vince Dizon at DOTr helm – [06/06/25]
“Villafuerte had proposed that instead of a standard train system, which had been proposed during the Duterte administration, the “Bicol Express” should be a high-speed railway like the “bullet trains” in Japan to cut travel time from Metro Manila to Albay or Sorsogon to only three hours.
“While countries such as Vietnam are already building high-speed train systems, I think it’s about time that the Philippines similarly develop a high-speed rail,” he said.
“Based on research, all countries have developed because they have efficient railway systems. Can you imagine if there’s a Manila-Bicol high-speed rail that can cut travel time to three hours. That will develop all the areas and decongest traffic from Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, and Quezon all the way to the Bicol provinces,” Villafuerte added.”
FACT CHECK: Image of bullet train in Bicol is AI-generated, no Albay trip yet – [26/05/25]
“Although most of the comments in the original post mirror awareness that the bullet train has not yet been launched in Bicol and that the AI-generated photo was just used to depict what it would look like in the future, some still mistakenly think that the photo is real.”
2024
The bullet train from Manila to Davao – [23/08/24]
“Engineering-wise, there is no fundamental technical or technological impediment to physically connect Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao with a train network through bridges and tunnels, in the same way that Japan managed to bridge the Tsugaru Strait to connect Honshu and Hokkaido through the 53.8-kilometer Seikan Tunnel, which was opened in 1988.”
Villafuerte’s proposal: Bullet trains for Philippines’ railway ‘renaissance’ – [11/03/24]
“National Unity Party (NUP) president and Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte urged the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to roll out bullet trains in the so-called Bicol Express and other major rail projects across the country.”
2023
Shinkansen dream: Villafuerte pitches for Japan-style bullet train linking NCR to Bicol – [09/11/23]
“After the government withdrew its loan application from China, National Unity Party president and Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte proposed the construction of a Japanese-style bullet train to connect the National Capital Region (NCR) and the Bicol region.
Villafuerte said if the funding for the South Long Haul Railway project of the Philippine National Railway (PNR) comes from the Japanese official development assistance (ODA), “it would be ideal for Tokyo to build a bullet train in lieu of a regular railway system.””
Japan eyed to fund bullet train – [08/11/23]
“The initial phase of the project would involve a 380-kilometer railway connecting Banlic and Calamba, Laguna in central Luzon, to Daraga, Albay in southern Luzon.
Mr. Villafuerte said that Tokyo loans would be an ideal source to fund the project, citing its role in the country’s transportation projects.
He cited Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains, which run at 320 km per hour.”
2014
Metro-Clark bullet train impractical, says expert – [29/09/14]
“The proposed high-speed rail line that will link Metro Manila and the Clark Freeport Zone, may not be a feasible mass transportation option given its high cost, said an official of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica).”
2010
San Miguel mulls bullet train project – [26/03/10]
“San Miguel Corp. (SMC) has set its sights on what could probably be its most ambitious and expensive project to date as it spearheads the Philippines’ bid to become the first country in Southeast Asia to build and operate a bullet train.
SMC president and CEO Ramon Ang told The STAR that they have commissioned a group that includes international companies with experience in bullet trains to study the possibility of building a bullet train railway that will run from the north to the south end of Luzon.”
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