On the morning of November 13, the National Assembly discussed in groups the investment policy for the high-speed railway project on the North-South axis.

Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang said that the high-speed railway will only carry passengers, not cargo; in the design and planning, when necessary, cargo will be able to be carried.

According to calculations, by 2050, the demand for transporting goods along the North-South axis is expected to be just over 18 million tons/year and the old railway can fully handle it. In addition, there is also a coastal sea and road transport system. All countries have high-speed railways but still transport goods mainly by sea and road.

According to the Minister, transporting goods by coastal sea is convenient with large volume and the cheapest cost, while for short routes, road transport has absolute advantage.

The Minister cited experience in Japan, where there is a Shinkansen high-speed railway with a speed of 300 km/h but only carries passengers, and there is also a parallel railway like Vietnam to transport goods.

In Japan 50 years ago, the market share of railway transport was very high, accounting for about 30%, but then gradually decreased, now only about 4-5%. Japan also has coastal shipping routes (accounting for 50%) and roads (over 40%) with many utilities.

Nguyen Van Thang
Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang speaks at the meeting. Photo: Nhu Y

In addition, high-speed rail transport requires goods to be containerized, transported, and loaded and unloaded. The Minister emphasized that if time and convenience are needed, use road transport, but if large volumes and low cost are needed, use coastal shipping.

The Minister also stated that countries are concerned about sharing between passengers and goods due to the very high risk of insecurity and the huge reduction in transport efficiency, "they all recommend against sharing".

The Minister analyzed that only high-speed trains are used to transport passengers, while when transporting goods, the common speed is 80-100km/h, no different from the old railway system.

Regarding the travel time from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, which is 5.5 hours, the Minister said that there are expected to be 2 types of trains: The type running at 350 km/h will only stop at 5 stations with 85 trains running alternately; the type running at 280 km/h will run on each route depending on people's needs...

The Minister shared that there are concerns and worries about possible risks when implementing high-speed railways like metro, such as slow progress and capital overruns.

"We have studied this issue very carefully. Personally, I am also very interested in clarifying the reasons leading to the delay of some urban railway projects. We have summarized that there are many reasons, but there are 3 main reasons that need attention," said the Minister.

The first reason is investment preparation, this is a very important factor that determines whether there is capital increase or not.

"Previously, when implementing urban railways, we could not imagine what each item in the train would look like. When negotiating, we could only write down the name. But for the entire railway project to be implemented from now on, all factors must be clear from engineering, route direction to technology," said Mr. Thang.

Regarding the second reason about site clearance taking time, effort and money, according to the Minister, this is an important and special project and the National Assembly discussed to separate site clearance into a separate project, which will facilitate the implementation of this project and many other projects.

The next reason is about choosing partners. Up to now, we have mainly borrowed ODA capital, so we are constrained and do not have the right to choose partners.

"This is a huge disadvantage and also the reason for the price increase. For this project, the selection of partners must be in the direction of choosing a construction contractor with good quality, reasonable price and forced technology transfer," the Minister affirmed that the selection of contractors does not depend on foreign loans.

"If we borrow, we will only borrow no more than 30% of the total investment, divided by year only about 46 trillion VND (1.86 billion USD/year), with the condition that the interest rate is really cheap and basically not binding...", said the Minister of Transport.

In addition, the second option is preferred over domestic borrowing through bond issuance.

Regarding technology transfer, the Ministry of Transport has proactively selected a number of large enterprises to designate for cooperation and transfer. The Ministry has worked with a number of large private enterprises and a number of enterprises under the Ministry of National Defense so that when implemented, they will be designated as national enterprises to participate in technology transfer.

The Minister assessed: "The transfer of core technology is not necessary because the demand for additional construction in the country is not high, we do not hope to have more high-speed railway lines."

The cost of operating and maintaining the North-South high-speed railway is about 1 billion USD/year.

The cost of operating and maintaining the North-South high-speed railway is about 1 billion USD/year.

The North-South high-speed railway project, with a total investment of about 67 billion USD, will be completed in 2036, with annual operation and maintenance costs of about 1 billion USD.
France is particularly interested in the North-South high-speed railway project.

France is particularly interested in the North-South high-speed railway project.

The French side is particularly interested in and closely monitoring the North-South high-speed railway project that the Vietnamese National Assembly is considering.
Decisive action to speed up the North-South high-speed railway project

Resolute action to speed up the North-South high-speed railway project

The Government Standing Committee requested innovation in thinking and implementation of the North-South high-speed railway project with the viewpoint: Resolute action; mobilizing all resources; preparation must be strict and thorough but implementation must be fast and effective...