After 6 years of implementing Decision No. 358/2020 of the Prime Minister on ensuring traffic order and safety and handling self-opened passages through railways, the railway industry has removed nearly 1,600 passages. However, this result only reached about 39.6% of the set plan.
Information from Vietnam Railways Corporation shows that, although some initial results have been achieved, the goal of completely eliminating self-opened lanes throughout the railway network by 2025 has not been completed, and many existing problems need to be further removed.
As of December 31, 2025, the entire railway network has removed and fenced off 1,593 self-opened lanes out of a total of 4,024 lanes, reaching about 39.6%. Thus, there are still 2,431 self-opened lanes that have not been handled, accounting for about 61% of the total number of level crossings between roads and railways - locations that pose a high risk of traffic unsafety.
In addition, investment in alternative infrastructure to eliminate self-opened walkways is also being implemented slowly compared to the plan. Specifically, 58.23 km of service roads and fences have been built out of a total of more than 650 km of planned roads (reaching 8.95%); 15 legal level crossings have been built out of a total of 297 roads (reaching 5.05%); and 2 underpasses out of a total of 149 tunnels (reaching 1.34%).
The specialized railway overpass project at Km76+970 Kep - Ha Long - Cai Lan route has not been implemented to date.
Not only that, the situation of railway traffic safety corridor violations is still complicated. Currently, there are still 11,596 locations violating railway infrastructure and 4,793 locations violating the protection scope of information and signal works.
Most cases have been recorded and reported to local authorities. However, thorough handling is still limited, and many violations have not been thoroughly resolved.
According to Vietnam Railways Corporation, some localities such as Hai Phong, Hung Yen, Ninh Binh, Bac Ninh, Thanh Hoa, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue, Gia Lai, Dong Nai... have actively implemented handling solutions. However, many other localities are still slow to get involved, have not drastically directed or have not prioritized allocation of capital for implementation.
In addition, the funding for investment in replacement works such as level crossings, underpasses, overpasses... has not been allocated according to the correct schedule. Some other difficulties also affect the progress, such as the failure to complete planting land boundary markers for railways or many localities have not allocated land funds to build service roads and barriers.
Faced with the above situation, Vietnam Railways Corporation proposed that localities with railway lines passing through review the road-railway intersection planning in the area to propose adding new construction locations or renovating and upgrading legal level crossings. At the same time, develop a master plan to gradually eliminate existing self-opened walkways.
Localities also need to prioritize allocating capital for items under their responsibility, especially the construction of service roads and auxiliary works, in order to gradually eliminate dangerous self-opened paths and clear violations of the railway traffic safety corridor.
In the time it is not possible to immediately eliminate self-opened walkways, localities are requested to continue to maintain guard posts and guards at dangerous locations to ensure railway traffic safety.
