The train runs from North to South in 5 hours and 30 minutes.
On November 13, the National Assembly discussed the policy of building a high-speed railway project on the North-South axis. Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang spoke to clarify some contents.
The Minister said that the project proposed two types of trains. One type of train was designed to run at 350km/h and would only stop at 5 stations, instead of one train stopping at all 23 stations. He therefore confirmed that 5:30 was the total time including the stop time at the stations.
The second type of train runs at an average speed of 280km/h. This type of train usually runs on one route at a time, such as from Hanoi - Vinh or Nha Trang - Ho Chi Minh City, so that people have more options. During the operation, depending on demand, the number of trains 1 or 2 will be increased or decreased.
Regarding whether to connect the route to Can Tho or not, the Minister said that the planning of the railway network connecting the two ends of the country already includes the 156km Lang Son - Hanoi railway line. The designed speed for passenger transport is about 200km/h and for freight transport is 100km/h.
With Ho Chi Minh City - Can Tho, there will be a 174km route, also a standard gauge railway, which is being prepared for investment.
The Ministry of Transport is implementing these routes in parallel to quickly connect railways from the two ends of the country.
Autonomy, not dependent on foreign loans
Referring to the concerns of some delegates about the slow progress, the commander of the transport sector shared that he had thoroughly researched and deeply investigated the reasons why some urban railway lines were behind schedule.
There are three main reasons to consider when implementing railway projects.
First is investment preparation, this is a very important factor that determines whether there is capital increase or not, so it needs to be done carefully.
Regarding site clearance, this is the reason why it takes a lot of time, effort and money. The National Assembly is also discussing to separate site clearance into a separate project, which will facilitate the implementation of this project and many other projects in the future.
Regarding partner selection, up to now, when implementing railway routes, capital is very large, about several billion USD or more, so we mainly borrow ODA capital, so we are constrained and do not have the right to choose partners.
"This is a huge disadvantage and is also the reason for the price increase. Therefore, 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 said, affirming 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 annually by about 46 trillion VND (1.86 billion USD/year), with the condition that the interest rate is really cheap and basically unconstrained to ensure that when implementing construction, it does not depend on factors related to borrowing capital or binding contractors," the Minister said, emphasizing that only then will we borrow and it must be cheaper than borrowing domestically.
The second and more preferred option is to borrow domestically through bond issuance.
Regarding the issue of technology transfer, according to the Minister, we have talked a lot about technology transfer, asking partners to transfer but it is not clear to whom, leading to unsuccessful implementation.
As for what to transfer, in your opinion, we must choose which essential issues to receive the transfer of.
The Minister assessed that the transfer of core technology is not necessary because the demand for further construction in the country is not high, and we do not hope to have more high-speed railway lines. Focusing on researching core technology now is unnecessary.
On the other hand, construction technology, production of locomotives and especially maintenance, repair and upgrading must be transferred.
