Why Passenger Train Service in Batangas was Discontinued in 1940 and 1941

Passenger train service has been in existence in the Philippines way back to the Spanish Colonial era. However, when the Americans took over from the Spaniards late in the 19^th century, they noted that “there was but one steam railroad of any consequence in the Philippine Islands¹.” This was the Manila to Dagupan line, operated by a UK registered corporation named the Manila Railway Company, Limited.

A commuter tram service also ran from Manila to Caloocan via Malabon, and this service predated the Dagupan service. In Mindanao, tracks had been laid down for a military railroad, while there were short rail lines in the island of Cebu. These apart, however, train service in the Philippines was remarkably limited.

The work was then cut out for the new American colonial government in its effort to improve transportation service around the country and also to stimulate economic development. As early as 1903, it started soliciting bids for the construction of rail networks around the country, including those within the province of Batangas.

The particulars of the rail network that was desired in Batangas, including branches to Laguna and Tayabas² were detailed in a 1906 report of the War Department:

By the following decade, construction of the rail network in Batangas was well underway. However, instead of branching out from Santo Tomas to Lucena as was originally proposed, the line would branch out from the town of Malvar, instead. Tracks had been laid down “9 kilometers beyond Lipa” or beyond the town of San Jose and was approaching the town of Batangas.

The subsequent opening of rail service in southern Luzon went beyond what government officials had hoped for, and had “an almost magical effect in stimulating industry and fostering production... particularly in the Provinces of Batangas, La Laguna and Tayabas⁴.”

However, even before the American colonial government had started soliciting bids for the building of rail networks, it had in fact already embarked on improving the road system that the Spaniards did not really have an appetite for. As early as 1900, the Americans had begun building the Calamba to Batangas road.

What the Spaniards had left behind was a series of rough roads between the towns of Batangas and Calamba; and the Americans intended to build ditches to the sides of these and then laying modern pavement over them. This road would pass through the towns of San Jose, Lipa, Tanauan and Santo Tomas in Batangas and then go on to Calamba in Laguna⁵.

Although the motorized transport was still in its infancy in 1900, and the road building was being undertaken by the Americans more with horse-draw vehicles in mind, the roads would ultimately also be beneficial to motor vehicles when they eventually become more common.

Motorized transport would, in fact, be the very reason why passenger train service in Batangas would eventually disappear, and even before the outbreak of war in the Pacific in 1941. By 1940, the volume of passengers availing of train service had declined to the point whereby the Manila Railroad Company, which operated the Calamba to Batangas Line, had to cut down on the number of scheduled train runs.

By the 2^nd of September 1940, the passenger train service between Batangas and Calamba was suspended as a matter of economic necessity. The reason for the suspension was explained in the annual report of the company’s general manager: