No more delays to kicking off North-South high-speed railway: expert

Vietnam should not further postpone the development of the North-South high-speed railway, a leading veteran expert has said.

Prof. Nguyen Mai, chairman of Vietnam's Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises (VAFIE), was speaking at the first meeting of the recently-formed national steering committee for the North-South high-speed railway project and other major rail routes on Thursday.

Mai’s comments were echoed by others at the meeting. Minister-Chairman of the Government Office Tran Van Son, deputy head of the steering committee, pointed out the need for a new double-track railway for passenger and cargo transportation.

Financial expert Le Xuan Nghia suggested building a brand-new synchronous express railway instead of renewing the existing one.

The Ministry of Transport has mapped out a master plan to build the North-South high-speed railway and received feedback from ministries, central agencies, experts, and the general public, said Deputy Minister of Transport Le Danh Huy.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, chairman of the committee, said that the development of the railway network in Vietnam is lagging behind economic needs. He urged the interdisciplinary committee to work on a plan to build express railways that suit the country’s topography.

“Investing in express railways is investing in the far future. It’s not just about a specific railway, it’s about forming an industry that is capable of dominating technology to operate an express railway network safely and effectively,” Ha noted.

He asked for the application of cutting-edge technologies, advances in digital transition, automation, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things to the project.

In late 2019, the transport ministry submitted to the government a pre-feasibility report on a Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City high-speed railway project. In the first option, the 1,545 km-long railway would carry only passengers at a designed speed of 320 kilometers per hour. It would run on double-track, 1.435-meter rails. The cost for this option was estimated at $58.7 billion.

In the second option, a new 1.435-meter railway would be built to carry passengers at 180 km/h and cargo at 120 km/h, at a cost of $64.9 billion.

If things go as planned, one section in the North and another in the South will be completed by 2030. The entire route is expected to be finished by 2035, according to Prof. Nguyen Mai, also former Vice Chairman of State Committee for Cooperation and Investment, now Ministry of Planning and Investment.

The then board chairman of Vietnam Railways Corporation (VNR) Vu Anh Minh said in March 2021 that once the high-speed railway becomes operational, at a speed of 300 km/h, the travel time from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City would be reduced to just 6 hours, just one hour longer than the time needed to travel to the airport, complete check-in procedures, and fly to HCMC.