The proposed Ho Chi Minh City railway to a mountain cable car

The Future Southeast Asia Newsletter features transport and urban development news in Southeast Asia, edited by James Clark.

This week I profiled another new railway proposal in Vietnam. In a case of burying the lede, one of the main English news sites ran a story about a new 10-lane highway along the Saigon River. That was such a depressing thought that I filed the article for later reading. At the bottom of the article, they mention a new light rail connecting HCMC to Tay Ninh (a neighbouring province).

There is not a lot of information about this project, so I have started a fact sheet to accumulate information in one place. The railway has been proposed by Sun Group, which is famous in Vietnam for its theme parks connected to cable cars. This rail proposal would serve a Sun Group cable car at Ba Den Mountain in Tay Ninh.

Latest posts at Future Southeast Asia

• Ho Chi Minh City – Tay Ninh light rail line

The Ho Chi Minh City-Tay Ninh light rail line (LRT) is a proposed railway connecting Ho Chi Minh City to Tay Ninh city in Tay Ninh province. The line was proposed by Sun Group to the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee in October 2024.

Updated posts at Future Southeast Asia

• Cable cars in Southeast Asia

Speaking of cable cars, I found some more cable car proposals for the cable car list. There are two separate cable car proposals near Kuching, so I have added those to the list.

Also, did you know that there used to be a cable car in Kuala Lumpur? The Bukit Nanas Cable Car was closed in the 1980s, but there have been occasional calls to rebuild it. I’ve added it to the list for reference.

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News

🇰🇭 Cambodia

• Users of Chinese-invested expressway in Cambodia top 10 mln

• Incentives drive EV growth in Cambodia

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• Prabowo instructs minister to expedite Giant Sea Wall construction

“The Minister of Public Works, Dody Hanggodo, received instructions from President Prabowo Subianto to expedite the construction of the Giant Sea Wall (GSW), stretching from Jakarta to Gresik, East Java.”

• Prabowo’s sea wall plan ‘not the cure’ for Indonesia’s land subsidence issues, experts say (archive)

• President Prabowo aims to build North Bali Airport

It was reported this week that Prabowo wanted to turn Bali into the new Singapore or Hong Kong. What he meant was “adopting the modern and advanced airport designs of Singapore and Hong Kong for the planned North Bali International Airport.”

• 1 million apartments won’t solve Indonesia’s urban housing crisis

• ‘Similar to Temasek’: Indonesia president Prabowo’s new investment body could rival developed nations’, say officials

• Jakarta power cables set for underground relocation by 2025

• Delivering a package in a country with 17,000 islands (archive)

"When TikTok needed an e-commerce partner in Indonesia, Tokopedia was an obvious candidate for the vast network of warehouses, motorbikes and “sprinters” it uses."

🇱🇦 Laos

• Vientiane’s BRT project on track for mid-2025 completion

• Vientiane Special Economic Zones attract over USD 622 million in investment in first nine months of 2024

• Salavan province teams up with Singapore for new wind power project

• Laos eyes role as Asia’s potash powerhouse with rail exports to China

🇲🇾 Malaysia

• Gemas-JB Rail line almost completed; to operate by 1H 2025

• Drop KL-Singapore HSR, focus on domestic connectivity

• Selangor Rail Line-ECRL integration to spur urbanisation in state’s northern corridor

• Pedestrians not considered when building bus stops 

 🇵🇭 Philippines

• Can the Philippines handle disasters? Typhoons spark criticism of Marcos, ‘ghost projects’ (archive)

"Senator Imee Marcos and a group of retired generals have separately demanded accountability for flood control funds."

• Airport solution tests resilience of Bulacan residents

“More than 800 Taliptip residents were forced to evacuate at the nearby public school at the peak of Carina’s onslaught, worse than the usual knee-level flooding.

Residents blame the severe flooding in the area to the construction of the multi-billion peso New Manila International Airport being built in Barangays Taliptip and Bambang in Bulakan, Bulacan.”

🇸🇬 Singapore

• Mixed-use complex to be built above Hougang MRT station, will support demand for homes in the area

• Deficit for public bus operations narrows to $852m, lowest in 7 years

🇹🇭 Thailand

• Thailand plans nearly $3bn airport build-up to double capacity by 2032 

• Thailand’s airport rail link contract not ready for Cabinet okay yet

• Construction work on western section of Orange Line to start next year

• Monorails safe to use, insists MRTA

• Building of new terminal to be sped up

"The Transport Ministry has ordered the Department of Airports to speed up the construction of the new passenger terminal at Trang Airport, with the goal of it being in service by the end of next year."

• Pattaya banks on big tunnel to end persistent floods

• A closer look at Phuket's boom

"The island's real estate market has been percolating in recent years, but local operators say significant investment in infrastructure is needed."

• Thailand leads Asia-Pacific dialogue on sustainable urban development

🇻🇳 Vietnam

• HCM City to spend 33 billion VND on free metro rides in first month

• Metro Line 2 in Ho Chi Minh City faces major obstacles before construction begins

• Mega Long Thanh airport first phase should be completed in Sept 2026: senior parliament official

• Vietnam needs to modernize logistics infrastructure to stay competitive with low-cost Chinese goods: experts

• Exploring life in pint-sized makeshift houses along Ho Chi Minh City canals

• Green areas - missing pieces of urban development

• Mekong Delta’s second-largest salinity control sluice begins operation

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