Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro opening date set for late April

Vu Hong Truong, director of Hanoi Metro Company, said that they were not ready to open the Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro line yet and he had never said that the first commercial run would be on April 1.

Vu Hong Truong, director of Hanoi Metro Company, said that they were not ready to open the Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro line yet and he had never said that the first commercial run would be on April 1.

 

Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro line

He said, "We have never said that the metro line would be put into operation from April 1, definitely not in early April. The Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The has just visited the construction site and urged us to work hard to pilot the line with passengers in late April."

When being asked about ticket prices, Truong said they had taken into account average incomes, operational costs, subsidies from the government and competition with other means of transportation. In the first phase, the government will subsidise 50% of the ticket prices so the final prices will be about 1.75 times higher than bus fares. Current bus tickets cost VND7,000 (31 US cents) to VND9,000.

"Safety is our first priority," Truong said.

He went on to say that they should evaluate infrastructure based on their impact on the economy and society instead of profits. Each train has four carriages with a capacity of 960 passengers. Truong said that if the train was full then they could carry 19-20,000 passengers per hour, or 55-60% of the travellers during rush hours..

The Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro line has continually missed operational targets. Work started on the Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro on October 10, 2011. It was scheduled to be open to passengers in 2016 but has suffered continual delays.

In February, it was announced that the official operation of the metro line was rescheduled until April. Many people thought that the metro line will have its first commercial run starting from April 1.