Hanoi has proposed halting passenger train services on a stretch of railway that runs through its popular “railway cafe street”, but railway authorities and transport experts said that this could affect thousands of travellers daily, compromise train operations and weaken tourism appeal.
Travellers arriving in Hanoi from the south could face inconvenience if they have to transfer by road to continue their journeys on northbound routes, and this would affect elders, families with children and passengers carrying heavy luggage, Vietnamese online news site VnExpress reported.
Located mainly in the Kham Thien and Phung Hung areas of Hoan Kiem district, the narrow street in the Vietnamese capital has become a major tourist draw.
Cafes and shops line both sides of an active rail track in the city centre, where visitors sip coffee or throng to take videos or watch trains pass just in front of them – sometimes at chairs and tables placed a metre or less away from the track.
Despite laws requiring a safety buffer, cafes continue to push in to get the best views for patrons, and tourists persist in taking photos and videos on this unusual street.
The plans to halt the trains may just end up drawing more people to visit, observers noted, as videos on social media have already done their share of luring people to see the risky sights themselves.
In June last year, a viral video showed a tourist filming an oncoming train with his mobile phone before he narrowly escaped being seriously injured.
In October, another video captured a train crashing into tables and chairs placed too close to the tracks, VnExpress reported.
In the latest development, the Hanoi People’s Committee sent a document to the Ministry of Construction, proposing to adjust passenger services on the national railway section between Hanoi Station and Gia Lam Station.
Under the proposal, southbound passenger trains would terminate at Hanoi Station, while northbound services would end at Gia Lam, the Vietnam News Agency reported.
Passenger transfers between the two stations would be handled by the city’s construction and transport authorities.
If the plan is executed, passenger trains would no longer run through the stretch of track between Hanoi Station and Long Bien Station, where the cafe-lined railway cuts through densely populated inner-city neighbourhoods.
The city has also asked the ministry to hand over management of the national railway infrastructure on the Gia Lam-Hanoi section by the second quarter of this year, Asia News Network reported.
This would allow Hanoi to carry out urban renewal and conservation projects along the western edge of the Old Quarter and in the eastern part of the central heritage zone around the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long.
DISRUPTING TRAIN ROUTES, INCREASING TRAVEL TIMES
However, the Vietnam Railway Authority warned that the move could undermine the competitiveness of some popular train services, and that longer transfer times could push passengers back towards road transport.
The Hanoi-Gia Lam section is a key cross-city rail link connecting the capital’s northern and southern rail networks.
About 20 passenger trains and six freight trains use the corridor daily, serving routes to cities including Bac Ninh, Haiphong and Lao Cai.
