The Government continues to seek opinions on the high-speed railway project.

The Government Office has just announced the conclusion of Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung at a meeting on the investment research plan for the high-speed railway line on the North-South axis.

He requested the State Appraisal Council to carefully consider the investment necessity, economic, political, cultural, social, environmental, defense and security efficiency of the project. At the same time, clarify the ability to balance project investment resources in the period of 2021 - 2030, especially considering the need for investment capital for major transport projects (such as expressways, airport systems, upgrading existing railways and other transport infrastructure) or propose project investment in the period after 2030 to balance capital sources; report to the Prime Minister for consideration to submit to competent authorities according to regulations.

The Ministry of Transport is assigned to continue to widely collect opinions from experts, scientists, social and professional organizations and people; collect more experiences from countries that have developed and are developing high-speed railways to have enough basis to complete the project.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, this is a project with a large scale and total investment, complex technical nature, large compensation and site clearance volume, and passing through many localities on the North-South corridor, so the investment preparation process must be carefully and thoroughly researched to create high consensus among the Government, the Central Government, the National Assembly and the people.

In the past time, the Ministry of Transport and consulting organizations have made efforts to conduct research on the project; consulted experts and scientists to complete the pre-feasibility study report. However, up to now, there are still different opinions on the results of the investment plan research, especially the determination of the project investment phase.

According to the pre-feasibility report prepared by the Ministry of Transport, the 1,559 km high-speed railway project will pass through 20 provinces and cities from North to South; it is expected that 60% of the route will be on overpasses, 10% in tunnels, and 30% on the ground.

If the train runs at 320 km/h, stopping at each station for 2 minutes, the consulting unit calculates the train running time for the Hanoi - Vinh section to be 1 hour 20 minutes, the Ho Chi Minh City - Nha Trang section to be 1 hour 35 minutes, the Hanoi - Da Nang section to be 2 hours 24 minutes. The entire route from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City takes about 5 hours 17 minutes if stopping at few stations and 6 hours 50 minutes if stopping at many stations.