Anh, a respected architect who has spent years studying Hanoi’s architecture and planning, has sent a report to a national workshop on developing Hanoi into a civilized, modern and globally connected city.

Anh cited documents released by municipal authorities as saying that Hanoi plans to design an urban railway network in 2024. It is expected that 96.8 kilometers of railways with total investment capital of $14.6 billion would be built in 2024-2030. 

Hanoi also plans to develop a public transport development project, using electric green buses.

These two projects need $18 billion worth of capital to be implemented.

However, it is still unclear about the sources of capital for the green bus and urban railway development projects. The workforce is not qualified enough and Vietnam is still reliant on foreign technologies; experts commented that there are many problems in route and orientation planning, which cannot satisfy travel demand and poorly connect with the interprovincial railway network.

“The projects are really not feasible in use. They are not attractive and they can hardly attract investment capital from sponsors and the social community,” he said. “We need new proposals which are more reasonable and allow the city to fully exploit its advantages."

Anh stressed that Hanoi has great advantages in developing public transport. The green bus route will, together with the Van Cao – Hoa Lac urban railway route, serve the Hoa Lac satellite city and National University, nearly 3,000 hectares. The state budget has spent billions of dollars to be able to receive 600,000 people by 2030.

However, as of September 2024, only several tens of thousands of students from some universities are there. It is expected that in the years to come, about 10 percent of the population will move there. But in order to attract people, there should be urban railways.

In 2014, JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) conducted a study, collecting data for the BRT (bus rapid transit) project in Hanoi and found that the 38 kilometer urban railway route from Van Cao to Hoa Lac, capitalized at $2.8 billion, can serve 400,000 passengers a day. However, it warned that Vietnam will only be able to take back the investment capital after 48 years (2016-2064).

In January 2024, the China Pacific Construction Group and Vietnamese partners signed an MOU on cooperation to develop the route. Involved parties are drawing up a plan with attractive investment capital and implementation time.

Vietnam wants to speed up the project, striving to put the urban railway route into operation in 2-3 years. However, it will need more time to obtain 400,000 passengers a day, as well as perfect other technical, economic and social infrastructure items to ensure effective operation of the project.

When speeding up the development of public transport in Hanoi by 2030, Anh believes that it is necessary review the efficiency of the two green bus and urban railway projects.

The total investment capital is roughly $18 billion, but there are only 3 million passengers taking urban railways and buses a day.

Low-cost investment 

According to Anh, public transport helps the community and expands livelihoods, as well as provides transport services at low cost.

Tokyo in Japan has an urban railway network with total length of thousands of kilometers, managed and run by 12 companies. At first, railway routes were state owned, but now they are under the management of private companies with national safety standards.

Seoul in South Korea has an urban railway network of 1,100 kilometers.

After many years of developing expensive urban railways, many Asian cities have developed popular urban railways integrating multimodal transport with low-cost public transport systems.

JAK LINGKO model in Jakarta, Indonesia is an example. It integrates all types of public transport, from suburban railways, urban railways, BRT, normal buses and small buses (7 seater), and serves transport demand with a single payment card.

City dwellers can access different types of transport at varying costs to travel everywhere in cities. Meanwhile, municipal authorities apply policies to encourage people to use public transport instead of private vehicles.

Integrating public transport projects, together with enhancing accessibility to public benefits and increasing livelihood opportunities for urbanites, is the goal of sustainable development.

N. Huyen