NAGA CITY, Philippines - It took more than five hours for the commuter train of the Philippine National Railways to travel through the 80-kilometer stretch (not 377 km as earlier reported) in its inaugural run, on Wednesday.

And before it could embark on another trip, the old engines of the train, which traveled from Tagkawayan, Quezon, to Naga City, in Camarines Sur, bogged down.

Leaving Tagkawayan station at about 5 a.m., the commuter train, which was expected to arrive at 9 a.m. at the Naga PNR Station, came an hour late.

Nevertheless, the train was welcomed here by the excited crowd, who had not been served by the PNR, for three years.

The PNR has scheduled the Tagkawayan-Naga, Naga-Ligao, Ligao-Naga, and Naga-Tagkawayan trips.

But before the commuter train could leave this city to its final Bicol destination in Ligao City in Albay, the locomotives broke down and were sent to the shop for repair.

"The engines are old so they shut down," locomotive operator Romeo Caucil told the Daily Inquirer.

Confident of the feat to beat the deadline of running the train not later than the Peñafrancia Fiesta this week, the PNR management decided to send back the commuter train Wednesday night to Tagkawayan and to go back Thursday with devotees of the Virgen of Peñafrancia.

With its inaugural run to Bicol from Tagkawayan, Quezon to Ligao, Albay, the PNR is offering free rides until Sunday in celebration of the Peñafrancia Fiesta.

At 5:54 p.m. Wednesday, the three-coach commuter train left Naga PNR Station en route to Tagkawayan. It chugged laboriously across rice fields until it approached a rail bridge in Sampaloc, Pamplona, Camarines Sur, where it overheated and stopped, some 20 km up north of Naga City.

Earlier in the day, the engines were repaired in time for another test-run going back to Quezon. After several calls on their cellular phones, concerned employees of the PNR aboard the commuter train discussed whether or not to continue the run going to Tagkawayan, where it could have provided free services to Peñafrancia devotees from Quezon in the early morning Thursday.

"We will not push to go back to Tagkawayan because we are afraid we might just give so much inconvenience to the riders," Caucil said in explaining why they had shelved the ride back to Quezon.

The engines of the locomotive roared back to life after being repaired for more than 30 minutes and it went back to Naga City and reached the station at past 7 p.m. Constancio Toledano, manager of the Naga PNR Station, revealed that the engines easily overheated because the two locomotives were surpluses from Singapore bought way back in 1987.

On the train's way to Naga City from Tagkawayan, the engines bogged down several times, he said. Toledano said that after assessing the first commuter train run, they decided to shelve the plan to extend its operation to Ligao City for the meantime.

As of press time on Thursday morning, he said the two engines of the locomotives were still in the shop being reconditioned.

"The commuter train will run again going to Tagkawayan if the engines would run by four o'clock in the afternoon," Toledano said.

The commuter train is composed of two 60-passenger capacity first-class coaches and a third-class coach with a capacity of more than 100 passengers, according to Beda Priela, chief of staff of the general manager.

Manuel "Ower" Andal, PNR general manager, said the commuter run had exceeded expectations when it was able to beat the deadline to link Tagkawayan to Naga.

Andal said the rehabilitation of the PNR lines solely depended on available government funds from the Office of the President and endorsement from Congressman Diosdado Ignacio "Dato" Arroyo.

Despite the glitches, Andal was optimistic about the opening of a Metro Manila-to-Bicol line by March next year. He revealed that some P400 million had already been programmed for the rehabilitation work.

A feasibility study of the National Economic and Development Authority on the railway operation in Bicol showed a two-phase project with the first phase involving rehabilitation and reconstruction works of 89 percent of the southbound railway tracks from Calamba, Laguna to Legazpi City in Albay, which stretches 422.662 kilometers.

It is estimated to cost US$627.81 million. The second phase is the construction of a 112.23-km new rail line extending to Matnog, Sorsogon (takeoff port towards the Visayas and Mindanao) from Legazpi City. It will cost the government US$304.23 million.