Adjust route, expand connection
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Planning for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, the metro network is more than 600 km long, with 8 radial lines, 2 belt lines, 1 riverside line and 1 line connecting the Can Gio coastal tourist urban area.
Compared to the 2013 plan with 8 metro lines and 3 tram lines with a length of 220 km, the new plan has nearly tripled the length.
Some metro lines are being adjusted to optimize operations and expand service coverage. Metro Line 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien), currently 19.7 km long, will be extended to An Ha (Binh Chanh District), bringing the total length to 40.8 km.
Route 4 is a combination of routes 4 and 4B (according to the old planning), connecting Dong Thanh (Hoc Mon) to Hiep Phuoc Urban Area, and is also adjusted to pass through Tan Son Nhat airport.
Ho Chi Minh City also focuses on connecting the metro with major transport systems such as the national railway, Binh Trieu and Di An stations, Long Thanh airport and Tan Kien station (on the Ho Chi Minh City - Can Tho high-speed railway). The metro network will extend to Binh Duong, Dong Nai, and Long An, creating close links with satellite cities.
Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hien - Deputy Head of the HCMC Urban Railway Management Board (MAUR) - said that in the previous planning, metro lines passed through densely populated residential areas, causing high land clearance costs. Now, the new planning prioritizes placing stations on public land, both reducing cost pressure and creating space for urban development according to the TOD model (transport-oriented urban development).
The expansion of the metro area also helps to form new urban areas along the route. For example, Line 2 (Ben Thanh - Tham Luong), Line 4 (Thanh Xuan - Hiep Phuoc Urban Area) and Line 5 (Bay Hien Intersection - Saigon Bridge) previously focused only on the inner city, resulting in large compensation costs.
Extending these routes to Cu Chi, Nha Be, Hoc Mon, and Binh Chanh not only helps optimize costs but also opens up opportunities for suburban urban development and reasonable population dispersion.
Ho Chi Minh City adds a new route, ensuring the distance from residential areas to metro stations is only 800 m - 1 km, similar to advanced metro systems in Japan and Singapore.
Build 355 km of metro in the next 10 years
In addition to the long-term planning until 2050, Ho Chi Minh City also aims to complete the construction of 7 metro lines (from No. 1 to No. 7) with a total length of about 355 km by 2035.
Architect Ngo Viet Nam Son said that building a large-scale metro system in a short time is challenging but completely feasible if there is the right strategy.
According to Mr. Son, Ho Chi Minh City needs to have a breakthrough mindset in planning, management and implementation, to avoid repeating the limitations of Metro Line 1.
The city should not hesitate to spend the first 2-3 years to thoroughly prepare in terms of legality, mechanisms, investment capital and human resources. If lacking experience, it can hire international experts to ensure effective implementation.
One of the biggest obstacles is compensation and site clearance. Many infrastructure projects in Ho Chi Minh City have taken decades because of this problem. Mr. Son proposed that the city should develop a mechanism to shorten the clearance time to about a year, ensuring the site is clean for timely implementation.
