A train of HCMC Metro Line No. 1 conducts a test run in August 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran
The company that will operate HCMC Metro Line No. 1 said in its new plan that seven of the line’s 17 trains would enter service in July instead of waiting until the fourth quarter.
The Urban Railway Company Limited No.1 HCMC, established by the city authorities in 2015 to operate Line No. 1, said on Monday that the seven trains would operate from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, under of the first operational phase of the line from July 1 to September 30.
Each train will depart 10 minutes apart, depending on Giao Thong Van Tai newspaper under the Ministry of Transport.
The second phase, scheduled from October 1 to December 31, will operate 12 trains on weekdays. Operating hours will be from 5:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., with a frequency of 8 to 10 minutes per tour.
On Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, the line will operate nine trains.
For the third phase, starting January 1 next year, the operational plan will be decided based on the current situation.
On March 14, the HCMC Urban Railway Management Authority, which oversees all metro projects in the city, announced the postponement of the commercial operation schedule of Line No. 1 to the fourth quarter of this year , instead of July as planned in the previous plan.
There is a lot of work to prepare and the line will not be ready to operate in July.
Work on HCMC’s first metro project began in 2012 and faced various delays, and costs reached more than 43.7 trillion dong ($1.77 billion).
The line will use 17 trains imported from Japan. Each will consist of three cars.
Vietnam currently has only one operational metro line, Cat Linh – Ha Dong in Hanoi.
