Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved plans for a massive overhaul of Vietnam’s rail network over the next 35 years.
The ambitious scheme is broken into three phases. The first calls for upgrading the current North-South railway in order to allow passenger trains to run at speeds of 80 – 90kph and cargo trains at 50 – 60kph by 2020, reports VN Express.
In addition to boosted speeds, the first phase will also explore the use of rail segments that are currently unused and building new routes to major ports and industrial zones.
Under the second phase, which will start somewhere between 2020 and 2030, new high-speed tracks and trains will go into operation, reaching speeds of 160 – 200kph.
Finally, railway infrastructure, such as bridges and tunnels, will be upgraded by 2050 to accommodate speeds of 350kph.
The long-term vision of this plan is to complete the aforementioned upgrades, in addition to a new route through the central highlands and the Trans-Asian Railway.
The latter, which has been in the works since the 1960s, would stretch 80,900km and create a rail link between at least 21 European and Asia countries.
