58 billion USD for North-South high speed train: consultants
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – Vietnam’s first-ever high speed train running from
Hanoi to HCM City is projected to cost more than 58 billion USD, project
consultants unveiled on August 28.
In a report on the feasibility of the colossal North-South railway project
which was once rejected by the National Assembly and only revived recently, a
group of State-owned consultant companies including the Transport Engineering
Design Incorporation (TEDI), Transport Engineering Design Incorporation in the
South (TEDIS) and Transport Investment and Construction Consultant Company
(TRICC) suggested building a rail route of 1,545km divided into three sections
for separate investment.
Rail sections running from Hanoi to Vinh city in Nghe An province (285km) and
from Nha Trang city in Khanh Hoa province to HCM City (364km) are planned to be
built 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 Nha
Trang, is yet to have any construction dates planned.
The consultants said that the high speed railway would best attract passengers
and be able to compete with the soaring aviation sector if trains run at a maximum
speed of 350km per hour. That is equivalent to the speed of Japan’s iconic
bullet trains.
According to the report, the slower the trains are, the smaller the market
share the network will attain. If the trains run at 200km per hour (kph), for
example, only 2.7 percent of passengers on the Hanoi - Nha Trang section will
choose it as their means of transport. On the other hand, the rate can reach up
to 14 percent with train speeds of 350kph.
The consultants, however, suggested that the speed should hover around 160 to
200kph at first and increase to 350kph when the whole North-South rail route is
completed and comes into full operation.
With such a high speed, travel time between Hanoi and HCM City will be cut
dramatically to approximately 4.5 hours, compared to the current 30 hours on
the train and about one hour and 40 minutes by air.
According to the plans, trains will stop at over 23 stations with 70 percent of
the route running on bridges and through tunnels.
The consultants proposed applying the electric multiple unit technology, which
is widely used in Japan, France and China, to minimise infrastructure costs.
Vietnam Bridge and Road Association Vice President Nguyen Ngoc Long called the
North-South high speed railway a mega-project at the same time as Vietnam is
investing in other colossal projects like the North-South Expressway and the
aviation development plan.
He asked the consultants to provide a traffic forecast for the project in order
to consider the best proposal and avoid wasted investment.
“Speed proposals should also be considered carefully, but whatever is selected
must 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 should
therefore have a thorough risk assessment, which the consultancy report is
lacking.
“If (we) fail to calculate various issues like the payback period and land clearance, the risk will be huge,” he said.-VNS/VNA