Glimpse on the Old Balagtas Train Station

Balagtas or Bigaa station is one of the defunct stations of the abandoned Northrail line of PNR. This station also serves as a terminus for the Balagtas-Cabanatuan line.

After the invention of railroad in Britain in 1825, it reached France, Germany, the Netherlands, and in 1848 it was introduced in Spain. It was during the Spanish Revolution, and on 1872 that Filipino ‘propagandists’ in Madrid, showed that reforms were needed in the Philippines.

In 1875, Spanish royal orders were issued for general plans and ground rules for rail tracks in the Philippine. A Royal Order in 1880 started the work on the island of Luzon. A prototype line was built north from Manila to the nearby province of Bulacan, and eventually became part of the original main line. A Royal Order of 28 April 1882 directed the northern tracks be extended from Bigaa (present-day Balagtas, Bulacan) to Tuguegarao, Cagayan. Its operation began on November 24, 1892 as the Ferrocarril de Manila-Dagupan, during the Spanish period. 

The shipment of farm produce carried by the railway increased more than 100%. The economic impact was apparent. After his return from Hong Kong on June 1892, Dr Jose Rizal, the country's national hero, wrote that his 120-km train trip from Manila thru Bulacan to Tarlac, took him 5 hours 40 minutes.

By April 1899, the first American Commission to the Philippines arrived in Manila, and the so-called Schurman Commission was to survey conditions in the islands, just as the Philippine–American War started 2 months earlier. The Schurman Commission instructed that construction of roads, railroads, and other means of communications and transportation, as well as other public works be promoted. Transportation was given a high priority.

The second Commission was headed by William H. Taft, later America's 27th President. The Taft Commission's first law was to allocate P2 million (US$1 million) for road and bridge repairs.

Operation of the railroads was returned to its British owners in 1900 and was named as the Manila Railway Company during the American period.. By 1906, four branch lines had been added, including a 91.5-km Bigaa (Balagtas)–Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija section, the closest the tracks got to the Cagayan Valley at that time.

 It was nationalized before the World War II, and was acquired by the Philippine government which expanded the rail network, only to be lost during the war. The extensive damage took several years to repair. On June 20, 1946, under Republic Act No. 4156 the company became Philippine National Railways.

Old Bigaa Train Station