Vung Tau construction update: 2024 edition

Vung Tau is a beach city in the Southeast region of Vietnam.. It’s the closest beach city to Ho Chi Minh City, so it sees a lot of weekenders. You could say it’s the beach of Saigon.

I visited in 2021 and posted a construction update on that trip. I wasn’t planning a construction report this year, but I read a railway proposal that was so outrageous that I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

The province of Ba Ria – Vung Tau is planning to build three urban railway lines. One would be a loop around the city. Another line would connect Vung Tau to the future Long Thanh International Airport and Ho Chi Minh City. The third line would connect Vung Tau to the resort coast of the province.

Most provinces in Vietnam operate under the principle of “if you don’t ask you don’t get”. Provinces will propose a new airport or railway and see if the national government approves. Another way to put it is you miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take. Maybe your school teacher said there are no dumb questions. Well, in Vietnam, there are no dumb proposals.

I’ve seen so many ridiculous proposals now that I don’t get excited about them. Ba Ria – Vung Tau province has also proposed two new airports (two!) even though the largest airport in Vietnam is being built just down the road in neighbouring Dong Nai.

While the urban railway proposal seems fanciful, and the coastal railway seems unrealistic, there is a case for building the railway to HCMC via the new airport. Most of it has already been proposed in one form or another, so they just need to make sure there is a connection to the new airport.

For Line 1 (the Vung Tau loop line), I knew most of the roads, but I wanted to have a look and see for myself. I visited Vung Tau in February 2024, and on this trip I stuck mainly to area within the proposed rail line.

I got the ferry to Vung Tau from Ho Chi Minh City, and the Vung Tau port is a nice walk to the Front Beach city area. Near the ferry terminal is the DoubleTree by Hilton Vung Tau project. This had been advertised for years so I wasn’t expecting to see that it had finally started.

Here is the view of the DoubleTree from the park at the Front Beach.

Here is what it will eventually look like.

The Nguyen Trai Plaza project near the expat bar area remains abandoned. I’ve not been able to find an image for what is planned here, so if you know, let me know!

I crossed over to the Back Beach area, which is where most of the big construction sites are.

I started at the corner of Phan Chu Trinh and Thuy Van. This must be one of the most valuable seafront blocks in Vietnam, yet it still sits empty.

Thuy Van is the main road that follows the beach. This is one of the sections where they proposed to run the urban railway line.

The road is wide enough road have an elevated railway or an at-grade tramway. I wondered if you could build a railway this close to the sea and not have problems with the salty air. I have been on the coastal Blackpool Tramway and there is the Coast Tram in Belgium, so those are two precedents.

Last year the local government started clearing the makeshift stores and eateries that were built along the Thuy Van seafront.

There is a plan to renovate the Back Beach seafront area into a park. Here are some of the renovation plans.

Thuy Van Road will probably become more high-rise if other coastal cities in Vietnam are any indication. This article shows what the coast might look like after the coastal road renovation.

There is not much else going on along the beachfront. This abandoned project hasn’t changed since my visit in 2021.

This project on the corner of Thuy Van and Tran Quy Cap was nearly complete.

This land next to Land next to The Imperial Hotel had some construction workers onsite, but I couldn’t find anything about it.

Most of the inner city beach activity has been happening near the Pullman Hotel area.

The Song apartment tower opened since my last visit. The developers name of An Gia is prominently displayed on top of the building, which you might read as Angia if you didn’t know the company.

There is a shopping plaza at the base of the tower, giving it a modern city vibe.

There are many cafes at the base that double as a check-in for the apartments used as short-term rentals. This is in contrast to, for example, Penang, which has banned Airbnb and short-term rentals.

I was here the week before the Tet holiday break, so Vung Tau wasn’t very busy when I visited. This apartment block was busy with people coming and going.

Next to The Song is Vung Tau Pearl (literally next to The Song). I don’t understand why developers in Vietnam cram apartment towers so close to each other, when there is still plenty of room elsewhere.

On the same street as The Song and Pearl projects is CSJ Tower. This is part of the Cap Saint Jacques Complex (named after the colonial-era name of Vung Tau).

I visited this site in 2021, and the Cap Saint Jacques Hotel was still standing.

Here is what the Cap Saint Jacques Complex is expected to look like.

I walked up to the end of Thuy Van, and the road turns west into Nguyen An Ninh. This is the path os the proposed urban railway.

This section of Nguyen An Ninh is wide enough for an aboveground railway.

There is a big intersection at Nguyen An Ninh and 3 Thang 2, and this is where the other railways going to Ho Chi Minh City and Ho Tram was proposed to travel along.

Thuy Van and the eastern half of Nguyen An Ninh have enough space to run a railway, but I don’t see how they would run a railway on the rest of the route that was proposed. The northwest end of Nguyen An Ninh becomes too narrow for a railway, and it doesn’t make any sense to run a railway around Vi Ba Mountain (The Big Mountain).

Line 2 to the airport and HCMC makes sense, and I would even consider living in Vung Tau if there was a train to the airport and HCMC. The railway from Bien Hoa to Vung Tau was proposed in 2013 but it’s still being planned. Vietnam has so far been unable to build any new inter-city railways. As for urban railways, at the time of publishing this article, only one urban railway line has been built since construction began in 2010 on Line 3 in Hanoi.

After this visit to Vung Tau I followed the Ho Tram – Binh Chau sea resort route, which is where Line 3 would go. I will have another article about this railway, so make sure you are subscribed to the newsletter to get updates.

For more about Vung Tau, check out the list of Vung Tau construction projects.