The first test ran on nine kilometres of elevated track between Suối Tiên Station and Bình Thái Station on HCM City’s first metro line in December 2022. — VNA/VNS Photo Mạnh Linh

Metro Line No.1 runs from Bến Thành Market in District 1 to Suối Tiên Theme Park in Thủ Đức City.

It is about 19.7km in length with 14 stations.

There are three underground stations, including Bến Thành, HCM City Opera House and Ba Son, and 11 flyover stations, including Văn Thánh, Tân Cảng, Thảo Điền, An Phú, Rạch Chiếc, Phước Long, Bình Thái, Thủ Đức, High-tech Zone, HCM City National University and Suối Tiên Terminal.

There will be two parking lots in the vicinity of Văn Thánh Station, including a parking lot of 1,596 square metres (sq.m) for buses and a parking lot of 770sq.m for personal vehicles.

Thảo Điền Station will have a parking lot for personal vehicles with an area of ​​about 1,000sq.m, and a waiting area for passengers.

A parking lot for personal vehicles will cover an area of 1,500sq.m in the vicinity of Rạch Chiếc Station, and a parking lot for personal vehicles of 1,000sq.m will be built near Phước Long Station.

Bình Thái Station will have a parking lot for buses built on an area of 3,000sq.m, and will have a parking lot for personal vehicles covering an area of 1,000sq.m.

According to the Urban Railway Management Board, work on the Metro Line No.1 project is around 95 per cent complete after 10 years of construction.

With a total investment of more than VNĐ43.7 trillion (US$1.9 billion), the project was initially scheduled for completion in late 2021 and to run commercially in 2022, but then delays hit due to the pandemic and procedural problems.

The first test ran on nine kilometres of elevated track between Suối Tiên Station and Bình Thái Station on December 21 last year.

The elevated section is designed for trains to run at a speed of 110 kilometres per hour, but during the testing period, the train ran at a speed of 40kph.

All 17 Japanese-made trains have 147 seats, each with three cars and a capacity of 930 passengers.

They can run at speeds of up to 80km underground.

Metro ticket prices proposed

The HCM City Management Centre of Public Transport has proposed to the city’s Department of Transport ticket rates for Metro Line No. 1.

The ticket is proposed to cost from VNĐ9,000 ($0.38) to VNĐ24,000 ($1) per trip for the whole metro line.

The ticket for passengers with metro cards will be applied at VNĐ7,000 ($0.3) to VNĐ18,000 ($0.8) per trip.

In addition, the ticket will be priced at VNĐ48,000 ($2) per day, and the three-day ticket will cost VNĐ108,000 ($4.6).

Passengers will pay VNĐ330,000 ($14) per month while the tickets for students will cost VNĐ165,000 ($7) a month.

In order to attract more passengers, the Management Centre of Public Transport also proposed the city’s Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR) increase investments to ensure the effectiveness of tickets of all kinds for the metro line, add more kinds of tickets that take into account hours to meet the demand and purpose of passengers.

The centre proposed a lower ticket price for the initial phase and will adjust the price after one year of operation. — VNS