Purchased under soft loans from the Belgian Government, the trains first entered service under the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) in 1984.

[11] The construction of the original 15-kilometer (9.3 mi) section of the LRT Line 1 was funded by a ₱300 million soft and interest-free loan from the Belgian Government.

Additional funding for the project was later sourced from a ₱700 million loan provided by the consortium of ACEC (Ateliers de Constructions Electriques de Charleroi), BN (Constructions Ferroviaires et Metalliques, formerly Brugeoise et Nivelles), TEI (Tractionnel Engineering International), and TC (Transurb Consult).

[13] In September 2012, the then-Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) announced a ₱203 million rehabilitation program for twenty-one first-generation vehicles.

[14] After the Light Rail Manila Corporation (LRMC) took over the operations and maintenance of Line 1 in 2015,[15] the company initiated the second refurbishment of the trains in 2016 worth ₱1 billion.

[17][18] These underwent removal of rust from the car body, repainting, replacement of flooring, and installation of new LED lightings and onboard signaling systems.

It is the only 8-axle light rail vehicle in the entire rolling stock of the LRT Line 1, as subsequent trains since 1999 were built to the 6-axle design.

The 1000 class trains are made of BI sheet,[6] sporting a white body livery with blue and yellow cheatlines.

Prior to the first refurbishment, the 1000 class wore an orange and cream-white livery under the "Metrorail" branding, and notably had "mushroom-cap" roof-mounted ventilation.