Transport Minister Dinh La Thang has urged the State-owned Vietnam Railways Corporation (VNR) to drastically renovate its operations in order to stay competitive with other forms of public transport.

At a recent conference launching tasks for the corporation, Minister Thang pointed out the fact that the railway construction is lagging behind schedule, while advanced technology has not been applied in selling tickets and patrolling railroads.

The firm reported that in 2013, the volume of its passengers was equal to that of 2012. The number of short-distance travellers rose 15 – 20 percent, but the figure of long-distance ones fell.

Pham Van Son, Deputy General Director of VNR’s affiliate Saigon Railway Passenger Transport Company, said to improve performance, his firm will undertake more market research, enlarge the ticket selling network, adjust ticket prices to reflect the market change and raise the service quality.

Tran Ngoc Thanh, head of the VNR’s board of executives, said they will speed up technology application in 2014. Notably, cutting edge technology will be employed to sell ticket online from August.

The sector aims at increases of 3 percent in passenger and goods volumes and 5 percent in revenue this year.-VNA