70% of passengers on Cat Linh - Ha Dong elevated urban railway use monthly tickets, a sign of the line's effective operation. (Photo: VNA) Also known as the 2A line, the metro line is seeing on average 32,000passengers daily, of which 70% use monthly tickets.
Deputy Director of the Hanoi Public Transport Management Centre Thai Ho Phuong saidthat in the past nine months, the metro line has served over 5.4 millionpassengers, earning 47 billion VND (1.9 million USD) in revenue and exceedingthe plan by 5%.
The city’s public transport capacity has also increased to over 30%. The goalis that this figure will rise to 35% by 2025.
According to transport expert Le Trung Hieu, following a year of officialoperation, the 2A line has achieved four major goals of safety, attractingpassengers and reducing the use of personal vehicles, gaining experience inurban railway management and operation, while clearing all doubts on urban raillines.
However, the number of passengers now only reaches 15% of the line’s capacity,requiring the completion of the public transport network to utilise the fullpotential of urban railways, Phuong noted.
Vu Hon Tuong, director general of the Hanoi Metro One Member Ltd. Co. – theline operator, said that there are seven groups of tasks for the effectivemanagement of urban railways.
Those are the organisational model, recruitment and human resources, theprocess for system maintenance and operation, fare policies, pilot programmeand support in the initial operation, and subsidy preparation.
Truong said: “From the success story and experience of the Cat Linh - Ha Dongmetro line, we are confident that Nhon – Hanoi Station line will go intooperation effectively and successfully.”
Regarding traffic connection, Deputy Director Phuong said that there are 65 busstops along the metro route.
Cat Linh Station (the starting point) has 16 bus lines, while Yên Nghĩa Station(the end point) has 18.
However, the limited infrastructure is still an obstacle to setting up parkinglots for passengers, as well as the connection with the city’s public transportnetwork, Giao Thong (Transport) newspaper reported.
The Cat Linh - Ha Dong metro line measures 13.05km, consisting of 12 elevatedstations and 13 trains.
While its maximum speed is 80km per hour, the trains run at 35km per hourduring normal operation. The average waiting time for passengers is between sixto ten minutes.
The total capital of the urban railway project was over 18 trillion VND (868million USD), which included funding from China and the local budget.
The metro line went into operation on November 6 last year, offering free ridesfor the first 15 days.
As part of the public transport system, the line’s ticket pricing currentlyreceives subsidy from the capital city’s budget./.
VNA
