Philippines bets big on rail, but can it fix a broken transport network?

A two-hour commute for a 14km (8.7-mile) journey. For Julius Dalay and millions of other Filipinos, this is just how public transport works in Manila: a mishmash of jeepneys, trains and buses that commuters are left to figure out for themselves.

Dalay, an environmental planner, is resigned to the chaos. Reaching his destination usually involves hailing a jeepney, then cramming into a packed train and enduring a slow bus crawl along the capital’s main thoroughfares.

“You either wait the jeepney out, or you pray to God that the vehicles aren’t packed,” he said.

The Philippine government now says it wants to change that, with the roll-out of its biggest transport spending plan in years.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s administration is proposing to more than double the transport department’s budget to 300.96 billion pesos (US$4.8 billion) next year, as it races to push forward major railway projects meant to transform mobility across the congested capital and its surrounding provinces.

The Philippines was ranked Asia’s most congested country in the 2025 TomTom traffic index, with Manila placed 14th among the world’s 492 metropolitan areas and Davao City faring even worse, at 11th.

But transport planners and commuter advocates warn that money alone will not fix Metro Manila’s problems. The bigger challenge, they say, is making sure existing buses, jeepneys and other modes of public transport are not neglected while costly new projects – still years in the making – get built.