Passengers on a Metro Line 1 train during its trial operation.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway 1 Company Limited (HURC1), the final trial period will last until December 21 before the official commercial operations, which are set to commence on December 22.
During the final trial period, 200 trips will run daily, with the first train starting at 5 am and the last stopping at 10 pm. The trains will run on the 20 km line from Ben Thanh to Suoi Tien Station in about 30 minutes.
HURC1 said that the final trial run would retest technical issues and the co-operation between different teams in dealing with all situations to ensure smooth official operations from December 22.
The Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Management Board said the line would also run 200 trips between 5 am and 10 pm during the first six months of commercial operations.
After that, the line will operate from 5 am to 11 pm, with 276 trips daily between Monday and Friday. On weekends and holidays, the number of services will fall to 226.
Passengers would pay VND7,000 and VND20,000 for their trips based on the distance between 5 and 20 km. One-day tickets will cost VND40,000, three-day tickets cost VND90,000, and monthly tickets VND300,000.
The 19.70-kilometre-long metro line project, which started construction in 2012 costing VND43.70 trillion (USD1.77 billion), will run through District 1, Binh Thanh District, and Thu Duc City.
The trains are designed to run up to 110 kilometres per hour above ground and 80 kilometres underground.
The line was scheduled for operation in 2017 but has been delayed three times.