Connecting Vietnam's high-speed railway stations with urban rail transit

Vietnam is planning to build a high-speed railway from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. 23 stations are planned for the line, and they will all be new stations located in different areas from the current stations of the North-South Railway.

Some of the new stations will be much further out from the city centre than the current stations, so efficient transit systems will be required to transport passengers to and from the stations.

Two stations are confirmed to have connecting metro lines (Line 1 in Hanoi and Line 2 in HCMC). Da Nang is also planning to build urban railways, which will most likely include a connection to the high-speed station.

Should other cities be considering urban railways to connect the high-speed stations?

This post covers the confirmed and proposed metro lines that will connect the high-speed stations. I have also made a list of cities that should consider building a transit line to their high-speed station.

Confirmed transit lines

Hanoi

The current Hanoi Station is close to the old city area in Hoan Kiem District. It’s a great location, so I will be sad to see the station close (though the 5 and a half hour trip from Saigon will console this loss). The high-speed station (Ngoc Hoi Station) will be 10 km south of the current Hanoi Station.

While I prefer stations to be as close to the city centre as possible, there is no way that the high-speed railway could be built in the same corridor as the current North-South line.

The approach to Hanoi Station goes through small alleys lined with houses. Even if you have never been there, you have probably seen the “Hanoi Train Street” videos on social media. They would need to demolish thousands of houses to run an elevated railway through old Hanoi.

Fortunately, Hanoi has a plan to connect the high-speed station with the old city area via a metro.

Line 1 of the Hanoi Metro will be an underground line that follows the same path of the current North-South line. This means that there will be a metro line from Ngoc Hoi to Hanoi Station (the metro station will retain the Hanoi name).

The line then extends through the old quarter of Hoan Kien, under the famous Train Street. The line then continues across the Red River (near the current Long Bien Bridge) and towards Gia Lam Station. The section between Hanoi and Gia Lam is used by trains to Haiphong, so the metro will enable Hanoi to close down all of the lines that run through the narrow alleys.

The government wants to complete the high-speed railway by 2035, which would be incredible if it were built that fast. My concern is that Line 2A of the Hanoi Metro took 10 years to build, and Line 3 took 14 years to partially open.

Line 1 has not begun construction yet, and the next lines to be built are Lines 4 and 5. Considering how long it takes to build metro lines, Line 1 should be under construction now so it has a chance of being ready when the high-speed railway opens.

Ho Chi Minh City

The current station of Ho Chi Minh City (Ga Sai Gon) is close to the city centre, but it’s not in a good location to send trains to the north. The line has to loop around the city, and it also goes through narrow alleys.

The high-speed station will be in Thu Thiem, which is the new urban area on the east side of the Saigon River. The city planners were fortunate to have the line terminate in a relatively undeveloped area close to the city centre.

Thu Thiem Station will be connected to Ben Thanh Metro Station by Line 2 of the HCMC Metro. This is about 7 km away, so this is a good outcome.