Tan Cang Station (HCMC Metro): Pedestrian access and future interchange

Tan Cang Station is an elevated station on Line 1 of the Ho Chi Minh City Metro. This review looks at the pedestrian access to Landmark 81 (the tallest building in Vietnam), and how the station will interchange with Line 5 in the future.

Tan Cang Station introduction

Ho Chi Minh City opened its first metro line in December 2024, and the line is already proving to be popular among Saigonese and visitors to the city.

Tan Cang Station is one of 11 elevated stations on Line 1 (in addition to 3 underground stations). Most of the elevated stations have the same design and a pedestrian bridge over Vo Nguyen Giap Road. Tan Cang has one pedestrian bridge, but it’s missing a pedestrian bridge across the most difficult road to cross.

All of the elevated stations have 2 platforms, while Tan Cang has 4 platforms. It has been assumed that the 4 platforms are for a line interchange, but the platforms are not built for interchanging.

Pedestrian access

The main problem with the station is pedestrian access. The station sits off the off-road from the Saigon Bridge, which loops around and goes under the bridge. Here is the view of the station on the map.

There is one pedestrian bridge on the north side of the station.

There were some images of the future station on display during the construction of the station. This image shows pedestrian bridges on both sides of the station.

A pedestrian bridge that goes towards Landmark 81 and the Central Park residential area would have required crossing over two busy roads. The first road is the start of the Saigon Bridge, which makes building a pedestrian bridge here difficult.

Here is what the roads look like as viewed from the station.

An exit was built to where a pedestrian bridge should be.

And here is the view at the end of the exit.

Instead of being able to walk from the station to the Vinhomes Central Park area, pedestrians have to walk around the station and under the bridge instead.

The walk involves crossing the first pedestrian bridge.

Once you are on the ground, there are some unsafe road crossings with no clear paths for pedestrians.

You then have to walk under the elevated railway and the Saigon Bridge. This area is grimy and dimly lit, and rubbish dumping is also a problem.

Considering that Vinhomes Central Park is a densely populated area with the prestige of the tallest building in Vietnam, there should have been better pedestrian planning here.

Putting a pedestrian bridge across here will probably not happen now, so the next best option is to landscape the walkway between the station and Landmark 81 to make it completely pedestrian-friendly. Build covered walkways, and make the walkway so that pedestrians don’t have to encounter traffic at any point.

Line 1 and Line 5 interchange

I have been following the construction of Line 1 since it began construction in 2012. There were already several lines planned before Line 1 began construction, so it was known which stations were going to interchange with other lines.

The HCMC metro authority has a basic map on its website showing Line 1 interchanging with Line 5 at Tan Cang Station.

I watched with interest while Tan Cang was being built. As the station started to rise, it was obvious that this was going to be bigger than the other 2-platform elevated stations.

As the building got bigger, 4 platforms could be seen. Did this mean they were building a cross-platform interchange between Line 1 and Line 5?

This would have been an amazing feature to pre-build. Having seen the poor interchange planning around Southeast Asia, this would have been a great way to start the first line. I was hopeful that the HCMC metro had learned the lessons of Bangkok’s bad interchange planning.

My optimism was short-lived as it soon became apparent that the extra platforms were not for Line 5. A bridge was built from the station to cross Dien Bien Phu Road. The rails of the 4 platforms merge into 2 between the station and the bridge. The 2 extra platforms are for use by Line 1.

Here is the satellite view of the station and the surrounding roads. You can see where Line 1 crosses Dien Bien Phu (the big yellow line). Line 5 will follow the route along Dien Bien Phu.

The 4 platforms at Tan Cang are not built as an interchange, so it remains a mystery as to why they built 4 platforms.

Another metro authority map shows that Line 5 will be underground. This official map is small, but it shows that the dashed line is underground to Tan Cang.

If Line 5 is underground at Tan Cang, then it would have been better to build a separate interchange inside Tan Cang Station for Line 5 underground. With the current station design, passengers will have to leave the ticketed area of the station and go to the Line 5 entrance.

Future interchange stations

The lack of planning of interchanges is what happened with the first two metro lines in Hanoi. In my 2024 Hanoi Metro report, I noted that the Cat Linh elevated station on Line 2A was not built to interchange with the underground Cat Linh station on Line 3. The Ha Noi Department of Transport has since announced that it will study the construction of a tunnel between the two stations.

Step-free interchanges within ticketed areas should be the minimum standard for every interchange station. It will also save money by building future interchange requirements in advance, rather than having to modify a station that has already been built.