Design speed 350km/h
According to Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang, the railway line starts in Hanoi (Ngoc Hoi station) and ends in Ho Chi Minh City (Thu Thiem station), passing through 20 provinces and cities, with a length of about 1,541km. Regarding the scale of investment, the new high-speed railway line on the North-South axis will be double-track, 1,435mm gauge, electrified, with a design speed of 350km/h and a load capacity of 22.5 tons/axle.
In terms of technology, the railway runs on rails, using distributed power train technology, freight trains use centralized power; signal information is equivalent to the system currently used in countries operating high-speed railways in the world.
Proposal to select the application of technical standards to ensure trains reach the design speed of 350km/h. The Government proposes to arrange 23 passenger stations, each station location is expected to have a planned development space of 200-500ha, 5 freight stations, each freight station is about 24.5ha in size. The total land use demand of the project is approximately 10,827ha, with a total investment of about 1,713,548 billion VND (about 67.34 billion USD).
Need to transfer technology, master the investment process
With the specific terrain of Vietnam stretching from North to South, delegate Hoang Van Cuong, member of the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee, said that the high-speed railway project will create connectivity and spread in socio-economic development, avoiding the current situation of only focusing on a few large provinces and cities along the length of the country.
Regarding investment methods, delegates cited the cases of urban railway projects such as Cat Linh - Ha Dong, Nhon - Hanoi Railway Station, Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien, which have been behind schedule for many years and have exceeded their budget, to express their concerns.
According to the delegate, the core point is the need for technology transfer, we need to master the investment process, avoid dependence on technology from the time of investment until operation, exploitation, which can even become a "debt" later. Delegate Nguyen Phi Thuong (Hanoi delegation) acknowledged that the project with a total investment of more than 67 billion USD, with an annual allocation of more than 6 billion USD, is a very large number. However, this is identified as a symbolic project, a driving force for the country's development in the new period. Regarding the issue of capital increase, delegate Nguyen Phi Thuong said that even in the US, railway projects have increased their capital by 2.2 times compared to the original. In the country, according to Mr. Thuong, urban railway projects all have increased their capital.
According to delegate Nguyen Manh Hung, Standing Member of the National Assembly's Economic Committee, the project is extremely large, so people are very worried.He also cited the Cat Linh - Ha Dong urban railway project, which officially started construction in 2011 and was expected to be completed in 2015, but after 12 missed deadlines, it was officially put into operation.The Nhon - Hanoi Railway Station project also missed deadlines 14 times, starting construction in 2006 and expected to be completed in 2010, but to date the entire line has not been put into operation.
