Over the weekend, Vietnam accredited the development of a high-speed railway connecting the north and south of the nation, a venture estimated to price $67 billion.
The 1,541-kilometer rail line will join the southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh Metropolis to the capital Hanoi within the north, supplementing the longer 1,729-kilometre railway constructed throughout French colonial rule. The brand new prepare is predicted to journey at speeds of as much as 350 kilometers per hour, lowering the journey between the 2 cities from the present 30 hours to simply five hours and 20 minutes.
On Saturday, Vietnam’s Nationwide Meeting voted to maneuver ahead with the high-speed rail venture, which has been on the federal government’s agenda for nearly two decades. Based on state media experiences, building is predicted to begin in 2027, with Vietnam hoping that the primary trains will start working by 2035.
A high-speed railway makes a number of sense for Vietnam, given the financial significance of the north-south hall and the rudimentary state of the present rail and street infrastructure. The Ministry of Transport tasks that by 2050, even with important investments in aviation and street transport, the north-south hall could have unmet passenger demand of 122.7 million trips annually – a spot that the railway is meant to fill.
“This venture is pivotal for restructuring transport shares and serves as a cornerstone for Vietnam’s leap into a brand new period of development,” Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Danh Huy mentioned over the weekend, as per the Associated Press. The prevailing north-south railroad, which is nicknamed the “reunification categorical,” may also be upgraded, and can proceed to deal with each freight and short-distance passenger transport.
Based on state media experiences, the high-speed rail line will pass through 20 provinces from north to south, and its bullet trains will cease at 23 passenger stations and 5 freight stations alongside the best way. Tickets will be priced between VND1.83 million ($72) and VND7.34 million ($289), which, in response to state media experiences, involves approximately 75 percent of the present airline fares.
Given the distinguished place that the railway has loved within the state media in current weeks, the venture has taken on nice political significance for the Communist Celebration of Vietnam (CPV). Specifically, it appears set to occupy a first-rate place within the occasion’s plan to launch the nation into “an period of development and resurgence,” as occasion chief To Lam said in a landmark speech final week.
The venture additionally has an plain symbolic significance, emphasizing the historic watershed of Vietnam’s unification underneath communist arms. The venture is earmarked for completion in a 12 months when the CPV will rejoice the sixtieth anniversary of its victory over the southern Republic of Vietnam in 1975.
Underscoring the political significance of the venture, Vietnam has mentioned that it intends to fund the venture itself. In October, the Ministry of Transport announced that the CPV Politburo had determined to construct the venture utilizing home funds and know-how, in a “spirit of independence and self-reliance.” Subsequent reporting means that the federal government has “additionally left room for worldwide loans, noting that if preferential funding turns into accessible, they might suggest this selection for consideration by related authorities.” On the similar time, Vietnam will seek to “guarantee higher management over building, know-how switch, and long-term operations.”
Authorities officers say that their alternative of high-speed rail know-how “shall be based mostly on each price and the potential for home know-how acquisition,” as a state media report put it. Among the many doubtless companions are firms from Japan and China, which have been companions within the improvement of the metro techniques in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis and Hanoi.
In any occasion, the willpower to maneuver ahead with the high-speed rail venture marks a big step ahead in Vietnamese capability and ambition. A north-south high-speed rail has been on the agenda since a minimum of 2006, when Japan and Vietnam signed a memorandum of understanding on the railway’s improvement, however for a few years the associated fee has been deemed effectively past Vietnam’s functionality. In 2010, the Nationwide Meeting rejected the rail proposal as economically unsustainable, arguing that few Vietnamese would be capable to afford the extreme fares.
Issues have modified within the years since, nonetheless. Throughout that point, Vietnam’s financial system has grown significantly, its GDP has nearly tripled from $147 billion in 2010 to $429 billion in 2023, in response to the World Financial institution.
Even so, the venture would require a long-term funding that won’t repay for a number of a long time. For the primary 4 years of its operations, VnExpress reported last week, revenues are anticipated solely to cowl the prices of working the trains and sustaining the rolling inventory. It mentioned that the railway is predicted to price $500 million per 12 months throughout this era, with the federal government footing a considerable a part of the invoice.
It additionally stays to be seen whether or not the 2035 deadline is real looking. If the sluggish progress on the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh Metropolis metro techniques is something to go by, this shall be a big problem. Each tasks have dragged on for greater than a decade, and the engineering challenges required for high-speed rail might create additional bottlenecks. Based on a pre-feasibility research quoted by VnExpress, around 60 percent of the rail line will run over bridges; 10 p.c of the road – greater than 150 kilometers – will run by means of tunnels.
Regardless of the monetary and technological uncertainties which have surrounded the high-speed rail plan over the previous 18 years, the CPV now seems to have put its help squarely behind the venture. With political in addition to monetary capital quickly to be invested, it’s turning into more and more doubtless that Vietnam will fulfill its high-speed rail dream – on no matter timeframe.
