Vietnam’s first-ever high speed train running from Hanoi to HCM City is projected to cost more than 58 billion USD. (Source: baodauthau.vn)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – Vietnam’s first-ever high speed train running fromHanoi to HCM City is projected to cost more than 58 billion USD, projectconsultants unveiled on August 28.
In a report on the feasibility of the colossal North-South railway projectwhich was once rejected by the National Assembly and only revived recently, agroup of State-owned consultant companies including the Transport EngineeringDesign Incorporation (TEDI), Transport Engineering Design Incorporation in theSouth (TEDIS) and Transport Investment and Construction Consultant Company(TRICC) suggested building a rail route of 1,545km divided into three sectionsfor separate investment.
Rail sections running from Hanoi to Vinh city in Nghe An province (285km) andfrom Nha Trang city in Khanh Hoa province to HCM City (364km) are planned to bebuilt first with investment of more than 24 billion USD.
They are due to be finished within 10 years, from 2020 to 2030.
The longest section of all – 896km of railway connecting Vinh city and NhaTrang, is yet to have any construction dates planned.
The consultants said that the high speed railway would best attract passengersand be able to compete with the soaring aviation sector if trains run at a maximumspeed of 350km per hour. That is equivalent to the speed of Japan’s iconicbullet trains.
According to the report, the slower the trains are, the smaller the marketshare the network will attain. If the trains run at 200km per hour (kph), forexample, only 2.7 percent of passengers on the Hanoi - Nha Trang section willchoose it as their means of transport. On the other hand, the rate can reach upto 14 percent with train speeds of 350kph.
The consultants, however, suggested that the speed should hover around 160 to200kph at first and increase to 350kph when the whole North-South rail route iscompleted and comes into full operation.
With such a high speed, travel time between Hanoi and HCM City will be cutdramatically to approximately 4.5 hours, compared to the current 30 hours onthe train and about one hour and 40 minutes by air.
According to the plans, trains will stop at over 23 stations with 70 percent ofthe route running on bridges and through tunnels.
The consultants proposed applying the electric multiple unit technology, whichis widely used in Japan, France and China, to minimise infrastructure costs.
Vietnam Bridge and Road Association Vice President Nguyen Ngoc Long called theNorth-South high speed railway a mega-project at the same time as Vietnam isinvesting in other colossal projects like the North-South Expressway and theaviation development plan.
He asked the consultants to provide a traffic forecast for the project in orderto consider the best proposal and avoid wasted investment.
“Speed proposals should also be considered carefully, but whatever is selectedmust guarantee the standard speed of 350kph,” he said.
Vu Hoai Nam, a lecturer on urban railways at the University of Construction,said that the project would demand a huge sum of capital investment and shouldtherefore have a thorough risk assessment, which the consultancy report islacking.
“If (we) fail to calculate various issues like the payback period and landclearance, the risk will be huge,” he said.-VNS/VNA
