Vietnam's first urban railway to run commercially in April
Next April, Hanoi will receive the Cat Linh – Ha Dong urban railway line for official commercial operation. This is the first urban railway line in Vietnam to be put into operation.
According to the Ministry of Transport, the Chinese EPC contractor has proposed to end the Cat Linh - Ha Dong railway test run by the end of the first quarter of 2019.
Accordingly, after the trial run is completed, the Vietnam Register and an independent French unit will conduct an inspection. Then the Ministry of Transport (the investor) will conduct the acceptance and hand over the project to the Hanoi Metro Company for management and operation.
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Cat Linh - Ha Dong railway prepares for commercial operation. |
The commercial operation time of the Cat Linh - Ha Dong route could be April this year.
Currently, this railway project has about 4% of the construction volume related to some rough items such as access roads and waiting rooms.
The Chinese general contractor has been testing the Cat Linh - Ha Dong train since October 2018.
The proposed fare for this railway route is about 10,000 VND/trip, with subsidies from the Hanoi budget.
When the Cat Linh - Ha Dong railway line goes into commercial operation, Hanoi plans to adjust the routes and frequencies of some bus routes to match this railway line, especially the bus routes operating on National Highway 6 (from Yen Nghia bus station to Nga Tu So). Of these, about 34 bus routes, accounting for 30% of the total number of routes of Hanoi's entire bus network, will have to be adjusted.
Bus routes will be adjusted to collect and release passengers for the railway. The plan under construction is that all railway stations will be connected to the city bus system.
At the same time, Hanoi also plans to build parking lots and private vehicle parking at stations, and transport modes to reach pedestrians. Taxis will not be banned from approaching these stations.
It is known that Hanoi is currently issuing a legal framework and moving towards building a public transport card that will be used for railways, buses, parking, etc.
The Cat Linh - Ha Dong urban railway is 13.1km long, with 12 stations (an average of 1.1km per station). The project uses ODA capital from China. The system is designed for a train speed of 80km/h, with an average commercial speed of about 35km/h. It is expected that each train will have 4 carriages, 3-5 minutes apart per trip.
Vietnam has prepared 681 people for the future operation and exploitation of the railway line. These people have gone to China for training and returned home (except for 30 management personnel).
