Sa Pa tourism, train tickets by sleeper bus

Despite fierce competition from the road, in 2023, the 102km Hanoi - Hai Phong railway line had a transport revenue of more than 110 billion VND, equal to 136% of the same period, of which more than 70% of passengers took the train to experience the Hai Phong food tour. This proves that passengers will not turn their backs on the railway if the railway knows how to exploit the market.

After the expressways were completed and put into use, the Hanoi-Hai Phong, Hanoi-Lao Cai, Hanoi-Thai Nguyen, Hanoi-Dong Dang railway lines saw a decrease in the number of passengers. The Hanoi Railway Transport Joint Stock Company (HARACO) successfully exploited the Hanoi-Hai Phong railway line with a spectacular "handshake" with Hai Phong tourism , opening a new direction.

With 24 bus companies, mostly sleeper buses such as Toan Thang, Sapa Express, Phuc An, Sapa Group Bus, Kad Bus... there are 338 trips per day, with ticket prices ranging from 220,000 VND to 220,000 VND (Limousine), Sapa tourists can only take the train from Hanoi to Lao Cai , and return by car, which takes only about 5 hours. The railway transport output on this route has decreased by 70%, mainly only transporting Apatite ore, many people do not believe that the railway can regain the market.

The railways did not stand idly by, in addition to reducing prices to compete, HARACO also boldly launched monthly tickets (no limit on trips per month), group tickets to diversify products, reaching many train passengers that have been well received by passengers. Accordingly, the company has reduced combo prices when buying group tickets of 4 people or more, reduced combo prices when buying group tickets of 8 people or more, transferring by car from Lao Cai station to hotels in SaPa at a cost of 55,000 VND to attract customers. However, with the price of a soft sleeper ticket on the first floor of 394,000 VND, the second floor of 374,000 VND, the return train is still empty, only running on weekends.

If the plan to run trains in balance, departing from Hanoi and Lao Cai at the same time at night, the ticket price needs to be equal for the round trip, and the train has to stay at the final station for 15-16 hours, then the revenue will not be able to cover the expenses. After many months of research, HARACO has changed its business plan, using only 1 train (instead of 2 trains) with fast rotation, regularly running the SP1/SP10 train, in which the return ticket from Lao Cai to Hanoi with soft sleeper is only 220 thousand VND, the difference in ticket price for SP1 (going to Lao Cai) and SP10 (going back to Hanoi) is quite large. Many tourists are interested in the train schedule and the ticket price is considered attractive for SP10 train, departing Lao Cai station at 8:30 am.

On March 26, HARACO will coordinate with the Hue and Da Nang tourism sectors to run a 3-hour tourist train between the two localities with many cultural heritages, which is attracting a lot of attention. Specifically, in the morning, train HD1 will depart from Hue at 7:45 a.m. and arrive in Da Nang at 10:35 a.m.; train HD2 will depart from Da Nang at 7:50 a.m. and arrive in Hue at 11:05 a.m. In the afternoon, train HD3 will depart from Hue at 2:25 p.m. and arrive in Da Nang at 5:40 p.m.; train HD4 will depart from Da Nang at 3:00 p.m. and arrive in Hue at 5:45 p.m. With a ticket price of 150,000 VND for a 103 km journey, a 20% discount on ticket prices for tourism agencies in the Hue and Da Nang tourism associations, a monthly ticket price of 900,000 VND/ticket and discounts for policy beneficiaries... the Company is orienting its products towards tourism rather than simple transportation like the previous 163/164 market train.

HARACO General Director Nguyen Viet Hiep said: We researched and analyzed deeply the customer base and the business compromise to decide on the pricing policy. The Corporation has supported the unit in liaising with local tourism in organizing the Hue-Da Nang tourist train. The unit has soon had a plan to prepare quality passenger cars, retrain qualified service staff, and build a suitable train schedule to attract customers.

Traditional railway passenger transport business is being fiercely competed by low-cost airlines, with only 1% of passengers traveling through Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City. Current economic and technical indicators in passenger transport with an average distance of 320 km/passenger, average revenue of 640 thousand VND/passenger show that if new transport products are not developed, the railway will face difficulties when the expressway is being rushed to completion. For the main daily train brands running Hanoi-Saigon SE1/2, SE3/4, SE5/6, SE7/8, to achieve and maintain an average revenue of 1 billion VND/round trip (break-even point) in the current context is a great effort of the railway.

In fact, the railway freight transport business in 2023 will be extremely difficult when the shipping fleet has "recovered" after the Covid-19 pandemic, in addition, 400,000 container trucks roaming the routes also make it impossible to ignore the railway. Due to the lack of connection with major seaports and industrial parks, railway freight transport is at a disadvantage. This problem cannot be solved "in a day or two", especially when the railway does not have enough funds of thousands of billions of VND to restructure traction and carrying capacity to rebalance transportation costs. In other words, in the coming time, the railway transport business must still focus on passenger transport, this is still the spearhead of the whole Corporation that must focus on breakthroughs, approaching in many different directions.

How to effectively sell value-added products to a group of train passengers of approximately 5 million people/year, with an average train ride time of about 4.5 hours, is a major issue that needs to be analyzed more carefully. In that context, HARACO's business plan for the SP1/SP10 trains (Hanoi-Lao Cai) and the HD tourist train (Hue-Da Nang) is highly appreciated for its creativity and efficiency.

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/du-lich-sa-pa-ve-tau-bang-xe-giuong-nam.html