Will there be a railway in Panay?
Will there be a railway in Panay?
And speaking of railway restorations, there are plans to restore the Phan Rang-Da Lat Railway! That, and more construction and transport news in Southeast Asia.
Greetings from Da Nang, where there is always construction news to report on (I will post a construction report next week).
After last week’s news about a possible revival of the railway on Panay Island, I dedicated this week’s main article about this proposed railway.
The old railway from Iloilo to Roxas was about 117 km, but the more important metric to consider is the population. Panay is the fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a population of 4.5 million people. The city of Iloilo has a population of 457,626, while Roxas has a population 179,292 people (as of 2020 census).
Proposals for the new railway go back over a decade, so I wouldn’t expect this to go ahead anytime soon. Also consider that Duterte came into power six years ago promising to build the Mindanao railway (the island he is from). His term is about to end without a kilometre of rideable line being built. With the combination of the island having 25 million people and Duterte being a Mindanaoan, I genuinely believed the railway would get built (what can I say, I’m an optimist!) Using Mindanao as a comparison, I won’t be holding out for a railway in Panay.
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News
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🇮🇩 Indonesia
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🇱🇦 Laos
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🇲🇾 Malaysia
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🇵🇭 Philippines
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🇸🇬 Singapore
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🇻🇳 Vietnam
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[Updated: Da Lat–Thap Cham railway restoration]