Manila Railroad Company
Manila Railroad's second and final monogram. | |
Old Tutuban station in 2008 after its conversion to a shopping mall. | |
| Company type | Private limited company (1887–1916) State-owned enterprise (1916–64) |
|---|---|
| Ferrocarril de Manila a Dagupan | |
| Industry | Rail transport Hospitality industry |
| Founded | June 1, 1887 November 24, 1892 (incorporation) |
| Defunct | June 20, 1964 |
| Successor | Philippine National Railways |
| Headquarters | Calle Azcarraga (Now Recto Avenue) Manila, Philippines |
Area served | Luzon |
Key people | Edmund Hett Sykes Horace L. Higgins José B. Paez |
| Services | Passenger rail Freight rail Buses Train ferry Hotel management |
| Owner | Government of the Philippines |
| Divisions | Manila and Dagupan Railroad Tarlac Railway Legazpi Division Manila Hotel MRR Auto Lines Manila Port Service |
The Manila Railroad Company (MRR) was a Filipino state-owned enterprise responsible for the management and operation of rail transport in the island of Luzon. It was originally established by an Englishman named Edmund Sykes as the private Manila Railway Co., Ltd. on June 1, 1887. British engineer Horace L. Higgins was then assigned as its first general manager in Manila. On July 7, 1906, a separate private entity named the Manila Railroad Company of New Jersey was established. The two companies continued to own the Luzon railroad network until February 4, 1916 when the Insular Government acquired both companies and absorbed them into the new Manila Railroad.
The MRR was the largest single railroad operator in the Philippines of its time. It owned 1,140 kilometers (710 mi) of track at its peak in the late 1930s, approximately one-fifth of all the rail network in the country by 1939. It also had various types of rolling stock from the early tank locomotives and boxcars of the 1890s to the diesel-electric GE Universal Series and Japanese-built steel-bodied railcars of the 1950s. Aside from rail transport, the railroad also invested in buses, the water transportation industry and the hospitality industry.
The Manila Railroad was then reorganized into the Philippine National Railways on June 20, 1964.