On the morning of December 22, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee held a ceremony to officially announce the operation of Metro Line No. 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien). From 10:00 a.m., all 14 stations on the line will open to welcome passengers.
During the first 30 days, passengers are free to ride Metro Line 1.
According to Ms. Vu Minh Huyen - Deputy Head of the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board (MAUR), within the first 10 days from December 22 to 31, people using Mastercard EMV cards (chip-based bank cards) or visitors coming directly to the stations will be issued cards to take the train.
For the next 9 days from January 1 to January 9, 2025, people can use their chip-embedded citizen identification cards to scan cards at readers at ticket gates at entrances and exits at stations to board trains.
From January 10 to January 20, 2025, people can use bank cards and EMV cards from domestic and foreign organizations to register for a virtual card to experience the metro via Apple Pay/Samsung Pay or register an account via HCMC Metro on their phone and receive a QR Code card to use for train travel.
During this time, the HCMC Metro application on mobile devices will be completed and put into use, and the feature of registering an account for people using the metro and buying monthly tickets will be added.
From January 21, 2025, Metro Line 1 will start collecting fares from 6,000 to 20,000 VND/trip.
Monthly tickets for regular customers cost 300,000 VND, while students get a discount of 150,000 VND.
Unlimited one-day or three-day tickets cost VND40,000 and VND90,000 respectively.
Metro Line 1 will operate from 5am to 10pm daily, with 9 trains operating continuously, a total of 200 trips/day.
The interval between trips is 8 - 12 minutes, each train has a maximum capacity of 930 passengers, including 147 seats and 783 standing places.
With a maximum speed of 110 km/h on the elevated section and 80 km/h on the underground section, the journey from Ben Thanh Station to Suoi Tien Bus Station takes about 29 minutes.
There are 61 bus routes connecting Metro Line 1 to serve train passengers, including 44 existing bus routes and 17 newly opened electric bus routes (numbers from 153 to 169).
To attract people to use and conveniently access stations of Metro Line 1, in the first month, passengers on 17 electric bus routes will also be exempted from tickets.
Approved in 2007 and started in 2012, Metro Line 1 is nearly 20 km long, connecting the city center to the eastern gateway. The entire line has 11 elevated stations, 3 underground stations, with a total investment of more than 43,700 billion VND.
