The proposed high-speed metro in Ho Chi Minh City

Out of all of the planned urban railways in Southeast Asia, the proposed Can Gio metro line in Ho Chi Minh City is the most unusual and ambitious.

The Ben Thanh – Can Gio metro is a proposed urban railway from Ben Thanh Market to the Can Gio coastal urban zone in Ho Chi Minh City. The metro has been proposed by a private company (Vingroup) to connect the downtown area of HCMC to their mega property development in Can Gio (Vinhomes Green Paradise). The project is being built on reclaimed land, and it aims to house 230,000 people. The project includes a 108-story tower on a reclaimed peninsula.

The initial metro proposal was for a 48.7 km line from Nguyen Van Linh Street (in former District 7) to Can Gio, with a top speed of 250 kph. The most recent proposal is to extend the line to Ben Thanh (making it around 53 km in total) with a new top speed of 350 kmh.

Here is a map by vnexpress that shows the route, and I have published a factsheet of the Ben Thanh – Can Gio project to keep track of news updates.

The Ben Thanh – Can Gio Metro project has been light on details, but here are some remarkable features, some challenges I see, and other unanswered questions.

From proposal to construction

One of the remarkable aspects of this project is that it was proposed in January 2025, and it has been scheduled to begin construction in December. For context, the airport rail link from Thu Thiem to Long Thanh Airport was proposed in 2013, and there is still no date set for construction to begin.

The construction timeline is also ambitious, with the line proposed to be open by early 2018 (just over 2 years).

For comparison, Line 1 of the HCMC Metro took over 12 years to build the 19.7 km line.

Building a new underground station at Ben Thanh

Ben Thanh Market is the central point of the city, and Ben Thanh metro station will eventually have three lines interchanging here (Line 1/3A, Line 2, Line 4). When Line 1 was built, Ben Thanh was built with platforms for the future lines.

Vingroup wants to start the Can Gio metro line here, but there is no space for another line. Instead, they initially proposed to build an underground station next to Ben Thanh on the corner of Le Loi and Ham Nghi. This line would have gone under Pho Duc Chinh Street and towards Ben Nghe Canal.

The city then raised concerns it had with building near the historic railway headquarters and the Museum of Fine Arts, so the new plan is to start the line near 23/9 Park and run under Ky Con Street and towards Ben Nghe Canal.

Here is a photo I took in 2019 of the Ben Thanh construction site. The fancy building in the background is the Museum of Fine Arts, and the trees next to that are Pho Duc Chinh Street. The Can Gio metro would need to dig another hole near here to place the metro station.

Whatever route is chosen, it’s going to be difficult and disruptive to build a new underground station in this area.

Another consideration is that Ben Thanh is going to become a construction site again when Line 2 and Line 4 begin construction, so adding another line here will add more years of disruption.

No inner city stations

Another unusual aspect of this metro line is that it will have no inner city stops after Ben Thanh. Initially, the 53 km line will be non-stop from Ben Thanh to Can Gio. The railway is being built by Vingroup to serve the Vingroup new urban area in Can Gio, so they want a fast non-stop train from the city centre.

Phase 2 will include 4 stops:

Ben Thanh (phase 1)
Tan Thuan (phase 2)
Tan My (phase 2)
Nha Be (phase 2)
Binh Khanh (phase 2)
Can Gio (phase 1)

The line goes through the former District 4 and District 7 areas (districts were abolished in July 2025, but we still refer to the old district locations), which could use some more metro stations than the ones that are already planned.

The world’s shortest high-speed railway

Even though the Ben Thanh-Can Gio Railway is a metro line, it’s proposed to operate as a high-speed railway. This would make it the world’s shortest high-speed railway.

The current shortest high-speed railway route is the Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen in Japan. This 66 km line between Takeo-Onsen and Nagasaki is isolated from the rest of the high-speed network, so it’s not just a short branch line. This train has an operating speed of 260 kmh.

Ben Thanh-Can Gio Railway is 53 km, though it will travel through metro tunnels with corners until it gets to the elevated section at Tan Thuan (former D7). The rest of the elevated section would need to be as straight as possible to allow 350 kmh travel.

The world’s fastest metro

In addition to being the world’s shortest high-speed railway, the Ben Thanh–Can Gio metro would also be the world’s fastest metro line. Most metro lines have short distances between stations, so a high-speed railway is not a consideration for such a rail system.

The Ben Thanh – Can Gio metro more resembles a commuter railway, as it travels further than an average metro line, but it is not an intercity railway.

The closest railway that could be compared to the Can Gio metro is the Great Train eXpress (GTX) in the Seoul Metropolitan Area. The GTX is a higher-speed commuter rail network with an operating speed of 180 kmh. GTX-A has a line length of 81 km (though not all of it is operating yet). The line is completely underground, and the seats are configured in metro style (a row of seats on the side of the carriage).

The GTX is what HCMC should be building to connect neighbouring provinces (such as Dong Nai and Tay Ninh), but this is a topic for another time.

Does the Can Gio metro need to be 350 km/h, considering the extra expense of a high-speed railway compared to the minutes saved on such a short route?

Crossing the Soai Rap River

Another challenge that the metro will face is crossing the Soai Rap River. There are currently two bridges that are under construction in this area. The Binh Khanh Bridge is behind schedule, and construction of the Phuoc Khanh Bridge has stalled.

These bridges have a clearance of 55 metres to allow container ships to pass underneath. The Phuoc Khanh Bridge can be seen from the Vung Tau ferry, and a bridge like this will need to be built for the metro.

Alternatives to the Ben Thanh – Can Gio Metro

This is a big project that has been fast-tracked in record time for a rail project in Vietnam, so I will be watching the construction progress with interest.

While studying this project, I have considered two alternatives to the current model.

The budget model

The budget alternative to the Ben Thanh – Can Gio Metro would be to stick to the original plan of starting the line at Nguyen Van Linh. This should be an interchange with Nguyen Van Linh of the future Line 4 of the HCMC Metro. The HCMC Metro should prioritise building Line 4 as soon as possible to meet the Can Gio line. Vingroup could then decide at a later date if it wanted to build an extension to Ben Thanh.

The GTX in Seoul is also a better model for fast train service within a commuter distance.

The deluxe model

Vingroup is going all out to turn Vinhomes Green Paradise into one of the 7 Wonders of Future Cities, so the deluxe version of this high-speed metro plan is to extend it to Vung Tau and the Ho Tram coastal resort area.

Vingroup has already proposed to build a sea-crossing bridge connecting Can Gio and Vung Tau, so it would be a matter of building a road-rail bridge. That means there would then be a fast train from Ben Thanh to Vung Tau.

From Vung Tau, the line could be extended up to the Ho Tram coastal resort area.