The Ministry of Transport has explained the opinions of National Assembly delegates discussing the investment policy for the North-South high-speed railway project .
The train only stops at 5 main stations.
Accordingly, some delegates said that with 23 passenger stations and 5 cargo stations, each station stopping for 5 minutes, the travel time from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City would take more than 7 hours, not 5.5 hours as reported.
Explaining this content, the Ministry of Transport said that according to the project’s pre-feasibility study report, under normal conditions, the proposed organization of exploitation mainly for passenger transport is as follows:
The train only stops at 5 main stations (Ngoc Hoi, Vinh, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Thu Thiem), the North-South journey time is about 5.3 hours. The train stops at 23 stations, the North-South journey time is about 6.6 hours.
This time includes the train stopping time at each station of about 2 minutes, similar to countries operating high-speed railways in the world.
The exploitation organization plan will be adjusted to suit the transportation needs at each time and service object, ensuring effective exploitation of the infrastructure system, serving national defense and security.
Besides, there are opinions that railways mainly transport passengers, and passengers cannot gather in Hanoi and go straight to Ho Chi Minh City, with a distance of 1,400km, passing through 23 stations.
There are stations with very close distances, so it is recommended to calculate the total optimal travel time more carefully to accurately assess the demand for long-distance passenger transport.
Regarding this content, the Ministry of Transport said that the principle of station arrangement is to ensure appropriate distance to effectively exploit infrastructure and vehicles (ensuring acceleration and deceleration distance).
According to calculations, the distance from departure to maximum operating speed of 320km/h and slowing down to stop is about 16.5km.
To improve operational efficiency, the project’s pre-feasibility study report proposes a distance between two adjacent stations of about 50-70km, and trains are organized to stop at all stations, so the actual stopping distance between two stations is about 100-140km.
Therefore, the train is not limited in operating speed, affecting the optimal time and ensuring attracting transport demand.
In the feasibility study report preparation step, the Ministry will direct consultants to continue surveying, investigating, and forecasting transportation demand as a basis for calculating, determining the scale, technical standards, and investment plans for stations to ensure suitability, efficiency, and feasibility.
Will call for business investment
Regarding the suggestion that the operation process should be combined with the private sector, considering it an effective new transportation service business, the ministry stated that the project’s pre-feasibility study report proposed investing in vehicles to ensure exploitation in the first phase because it was impossible to call for businesses to participate in investment.
During the operation process, when demand increases, the ministry will call on businesses to invest in more vehicles for operation, pay infrastructure rental fees to the State and invest in service and commercial areas at the stations.
Many delegates said that the National Assembly resolution must clearly state that technology transfer must be carried out to Vietnam and that the investment process must be mastered.
At the same time, it is proposed that along with the transfer, the railway industry and supporting industries must be developed and the technology must be mastered.
Regarding this content, the Ministry of Transport stated that in the project, it has researched and proposed a number of policies related to the reception and transfer of high-speed railway technology.
The Ministry will coordinate with the National Assembly Economic Committee to revise the draft resolution after receiving comments from delegates discussing in the hall.
It requires contractors and general contractors to commit to transferring technology to Vietnamese partners to ensure the goal of industrial development orientation until 2045.
Accordingly, mastering the construction industry; domestic assembly and gradually localizing vehicles for national railways and urban railways .
Domestically produce and gradually localize hardware and software components for information, signals and power supply systems, and master all operations, maintenance and repair work for high-speed railways.
Source: tuoitre.vn (Thanh Chung – Tien Long)
Source: Vietnam Insider