Proposal to turn Saigon station into a passenger transit hub

Saigon Station is proposed to be re-planned with an area of 6.85 hectares, to be used as a square, to become a passenger transit hub between high-speed railway, metro, and bus.

The content stated in the initial report on planning railway stations in the Ho Chi Minh City hub area, was sent by the consulting consortium to the Railway Department to obtain consensus from relevant parties. This is to plan the railway network in detail for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, after the master plan is approved by the Government.

Saigon Station is located in District 3, in the center of Ho Chi Minh City. This place is about 6.14 hectares wide, is the terminus of the Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City national railway line. Currently, this station has both passenger and cargo trains.

Saigon Railway Station seen from above. Photo: Quynh Tran — Saigon Railway Station seen from above. Photo: *Quynh Tran*

The consulting consortium proposed to re-plan the station with a total area of about 6.85 hectares, including a complex of many works such as building a square for a metro station, bus station, taxi, and parking lot, to serve the collection and transportation of passengers and goods.

According to this orientation, Saigon station will become a transit hub for passengers between trains, including the North-South high-speed railway, long-distance passenger trains, regional trains... This place is also a connection and transit point for Metro Line 2 of Ho Chi Minh City.

Along with Saigon Central Station, the surrounding area is proposed to be re-planned into three other hub stations. Of these, Binh Trieu Station (Thu Duc City) and Tan Kien Station (Binh Chanh) are the gathering places for passengers from the North and South of the city. These two stations have facilities for repairing and maintaining locomotives and carriages, connecting high-speed railway lines, regional railways and organizing "pendulum" train runs through Saigon Central Station.

The remaining station, Thu Thiem (Thu Duc), will not be used for North-South passenger trains but will be the hub of the Thu Thiem-Long Thanh railway, urban railway, and other forms of public transport. This place is expected to be built on an area of over 17 hectares.

In addition to the above stations, the consultant proposed planning three main freight stations in the Ho Chi Minh City area, including An Binh (Binh Duong), Trang Bom (Dong Nai) and Thanh Duc (Long An). These three stations will be the places to set up freight trains, transferring goods for the whole region going in all directions.

Location of Saigon station with the city's traffic connections. Graphics: Dang Hieu — Saigon Railway Station with the city's traffic connections. Graphics: *Dang Hieu*

At a meeting with leaders of the Ministry of Transport and related parties last week, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Bui Xuan Cuong said the city is studying solutions to complete the metro network by 2035, focusing on the remaining routes with a total length of about 200 km. Therefore, the detailed planning of national railway routes and stations needs to be updated and synchronized with the city's urban railway routes.

The consulting options were newly proposed during the consultation process for the initial report, so the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City suggested continuing to study and update them. The study should focus on the forms of connection between the main stations, clearly defining the national railway or urban railway, or dual-use exploitation...

Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Danh Huy also said that detailed planning needs to be synchronized between the national railway system and the metro system and other means of transport in each locality. Consulting units need to review and update information and accurate data as a basis for research and planning infrastructure in the area.

Gia Minh

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