High speed train from Hanoi to Vinh takes 1 hour and 20 minutes

The Railway Project Management Board has just submitted to the Ministry of Transport a pre-feasibility study report on the high-speed railway project on the North-South axis after many seminars and consultations with leading transport experts.

According to the pre-feasibility report, the 1,559 km long North-South high-speed railway project passes through 20 provinces and cities, from North to South including Hanoi, Ha Nam, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien - Hue, Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Dong Nai and Ho Chi Minh City.

The project starts at Hanoi station, ends at Thu Thiem station (Ho Chi Minh City). It is expected that 60% of the route will run 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's 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, and 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.

The project is being built according to the roadmap, phase one (2020 - 2030) will invest in the Hanoi - Vinh section of 282 km and Nha Trang - Ho Chi Minh City of 362 km. Phase two (2030-2045) will invest in the construction of the Vinh - Nha Trang section of about 901 km, of which the Vinh - Da Nang section will be completed in 2040, and the Da Nang - Nha Trang section will be completed in 2045.

The project has a total estimated investment of nearly 1.35 quadrillion VND (over 58.7 billion USD), of which phase one is over 567,000 billion VND, phase two is over 783,000 billion VND. The total investment includes site clearance costs of 2.23 billion USD, construction and equipment costs of 43.3 billion USD, management, consulting and other costs of 4.3 billion USD... The project is implemented in the form of public-private partnership (PPP) with state capital of about 80% and private capital of 20%.

In terms of investment scale, the project will build a new high-speed railway, double track, 1,435 mm gauge, electrified, and only transport passengers. The design speed is 350 km/h, the operating speed is 320 km/h. The line has 24 stations and 3 potential planned stations, 5 depots, and 42 infrastructure maintenance facilities. The proposed train will be a type of train using distributed power unit (EMU) technology and control signal technology that can be used via radio waves.

The consultant assessed that, if calculated as a percentage of GDP, the investment level for the project accounts for about 0.4 - 0.55% for the 2020-2030 period and about 0.35 - 0.4% for the 2030-2040 period. Thus, at these stages, with the growth rate of Vietnam's economy, it is possible to focus on mobilizing investment capital for the project without being too impacted on the allocation of investment capital for infrastructure as well as total social investment and national public debt.

In the report, the consultant also calculated that the high-speed railway's human resource needs are about 13,700 workers.

The high-speed railway pre-feasibility report was submitted by the consulting joint venture to the investor, the Ministry of Transport, for review and submitted to the State Appraisal Council and the Government for appraisal. Once the Government completes the appraisal, the project will be submitted to the National Assembly at the October 2019 session.