HCMC metro line takes possession of six Japanese train cars

A car for a train of HCMC's first metro line at the Khanh Hoi Port, HCMC, December 7, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Gia Minh

Six cars that make up two trains on Ho Chi Minh City's first metro line arrived from Japan on Tuesday morning.

According to VN Express, the cars, belonging to the 8th and 9th trains of the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro line, were transported from the Kasado factory in Japan to HCMC’s Khanh Hoi Port in District 4.

They would be transported to Long Binh Depot in Thu Duc City on Dec. 10 and Dec. 13 for assembly. Each car spans twenty-one meters and weighs thirty-seven tons.

The metro line's investor, the Ho Chi Minh City Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR), said six more cars for the 10th and 11th trains are also on their way to HCMC.

The ship carrying them is expected to dock on Wednesday, with the cars taken to Long Binh Depot for assembly on Dec. 15 and Dec. 17.

The cars would include train driving simulators for training and testing purposes, MAUR added.

With the additional cars, eleven trains out of the line’s seventeen have arrived in Vietnam. The trains are designed with a maximum speed of 110 kph on elevated sections and 80 kph underground. Each train has three cars and can carry 930 passengers.

The trains at Long Binh Depot are expected to conduct test runs in the first quarter of 2022.

Twenty kilometers to start late 2023

HCMC’s first metro line costs over VND43.7 trillion ($1.89 billion) and spans around twenty kilometers, starting from Ben Thanh Station in District 1 to Long Binh Depot.

It has three underground and eleven elevated stations.

The project was supposed to be completed at the end of 2021 and enter commercial operations in 2022 but was delayed due to impacts of the pandemic and other factors.

The project is now 88 percent complete and is expected to finish at the end of 2023.

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