Vietnam Weekly - July 12, 2019
The central government has been bandying about the idea of a national high-speed rail line for some time now, but with a potential price tag of nearly USD60 billion this hasn't gone beyond the drawing board.
This week the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) announced a new plan that would supposedly cut the cost by USD32 billion by altering the route (specifics haven't been shared) and lowering the maximum operating speed of the line from 350kph to 200kph.
The MPI relied on calculations from Dutch and German experts to reach this conclusion.
The ministry also suggested that local firms should construct the line, though that's a bit worrying given there is no history of high-speed rail here.
Meanwhile, the CEO of one of the three construction companies working with the Ministry of Transport to develop a concrete plan for the line has said such huge savings are impossible.
He argued that the trains will need to run at 350kph in order to compete with air travel, as at 200kph it would take 8 hours to travel from Hanoi to Saigon - tough to justify against a 2-hour flight for under USD100.
Whatever the cost, it's going to be a long time before work even begins on high-speed rail, as nothing has been approved yet, and the scale of this project puts metro lines - which Vietnam is already struggling mightily with - to shame.
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