Philippine National Railways, also known by its acronym, PNR, is a state-owned railway system in the Philippines, organized under the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) as an attached agency. Established during the Spanish colonial period, the modern PNR was developed only in 1984. It currently operates around 1,060 kilometres of track on the island of Luzon, where most Philippine rail infrastructure is located. Because of this, PNR has become synonymous with the Philippine rail system.

A portion of the PNR network, specifically the Metro Manila portion of the network, is part of the Strong Republic Transit System (SRTS), and overall public transport system in the metropolis. It forms the backbone of all of Metro Manila's regional rail services, which extend to its suburbs and to provinces such as Laguna. However, other than reducing growing traffic congestion due to the rising number of motor vehicles in Metro Manila, PNR also aims to link key cities within in the Philippines efficiently, a goal since marred by the overall degradation of rail infrastructure, as well as a lack of funds to fund the network's rehabilitation. The rehabilitation of PNR, which has been touted by various administrations, seeks to not only tackle those problems, but also to spur Philippine economic growth through an efficient railway system.


The PNR network consists of two main rail lines: the North Main Line, commonly known as Northrail, and the South Main Line, commonly known as Southrail. In Metro Manila, the lines are also known as the Green and Orange Lines respectively. Northrail is a 266-kilometer line stretching from Manila to San Fernando City in La Union, with a 55-kilometer branch line starting in Tarlac City and ending in San Jose in Nueva Ecija. Southrail is a 479-kilometer line from Manila to Legazpi City in Albay, with a 5-kilometer branch line starting in San Pedro in Laguna and ending in Carmona in Cavite, as well as two other branch lines connecting Calamba with Batangas City and Santa Cruz in Laguna. At present, only Southrail is open, as northbound rail services ended in the late 1980s. No direct connection currently exists between Northrail and Southrail.

Both routes are single-track (except in Metro Manila) and is built to the "Cape Gauge" of 1067 mm (3 feet 6 inches). This narrow gauge standard, which results in lateral instability, together with the age of most of the passenger rolling-stock — built in Madras (now Chennai) in India — means that trains run at very low speeds. While the Cape Gauge is not inherently bad (New Zealand and Queensland Rail in particular use the same gauge successfully), it does pose problems for high-speed operation. Compared to the newer Light Rail Transit and Metro Rail Transit systems, which are built to standard gauge (1435 mm or 4 feet 8.5 inches) and can run up to 80 km/h, PNR trains can only run up to 50 km/h.


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