There are two trends in the world for high-speed railways: only for passenger transport and a combination of passenger and freight transport. For Vietnam, high-speed railways will meet the great demand for passenger transport, at the same time, can transport freight when necessary and meet the dual-use requirements for national defense and security.
Regarding the high-speed railway exploitation plan, according to the experience of countries when building the route For new railways, the decision to operate passenger trains separately or jointly with freight trains is based on transport needs, safety levels and the ability to operate existing railways. For high-speed railways, up to now, most countries have organized separate passenger train operations; existing railways continue to operate effectively.
Research by consulting firms shows that there are two trends in high-speed rail in the world. In Japan, China, and Spain, high-speed rail is built only for passenger transport, while Germany operates a mixture of passenger and freight trains.
Germany is a country with a dense railway network, with little room to develop new railway lines, so most of them are upgraded from existing railways; although the design speed is more than 200km/h, due to the joint operation of passenger and freight trains, the effective operating speed of passenger trains is only about 160km/h, and freight trains about 80-100km/h.
Some countries such as Laos, Australia, and Serbia have built railway lines that operate both passenger and freight trains at a speed of about 160km/h for passenger trains and about 80km/h for freight trains. However, according to the definition of the International Union of Railways (UIC) and the provisions of the Railway Law, these are not high-speed railways, but only regular railways of class II.
According to survey data, research and experience in the world, to optimize transportation costs, it is necessary to promote the potential advantages of each mode of transportation. In particular, for freight transport, sea/river routes are capable of handling the largest volume, lowest cost; railways are the mode of transporting large volumes, average cost; road transport is the most convenient, high cost; air transport is the fastest, highest cost.
For passenger transport, short distance (under 150km) is dominated by road, medium distance (150-800km) high-speed rail is completely dominant, long distance (over 800km) market share belongs to aviation and high-speed rail.
Currently, the North-South corridor has all 5 modes of transport. Due to the advantage of the lowest cost, goods are mainly transported by sea and coastal transport; roads play the role of collecting and clearing goods; railways have advantages with medium and long distances for some types of goods but the volume is not large. In 2023, sea and river routes will take on the majority of freight transport demand on the North-South axis (145 million tons/year, accounting for about 48.5%); for passenger transport, there is an imbalance and unsustainable development, of which road accounts for 62.9%, aviation accounts for 34.3%, railway accounts for about 2.9% and is on a downward trend.
From international experience studies and the capacity of the current infrastructure system, the consulting consortium recommends the overall transport function on the North-South axis of the railway system: High-speed railway mainly transports passengers, transports goods with fast transport needs and serves national defense and security when needed; the existing railway line transports goods (especially heavy goods, bulk goods, liquid goods...) and short-distance tourists (it is forecasted that by 2050, light goods will account for about 4 million tons/year and heavy goods will account for about 14.2 million tons/year).
The North-South corridor is the corridor with the largest transport demand in the country for goods and passengers. The total demand for freight transport is forecasted to be about 1.4-1.7 billion tons/year and about 1.1-1.3 billion passengers/year by 2050. With the forecasted development scenario, the existing railway basically meets the freight transport capacity in the coming time, except for large-sized special goods.
For passengers, by 2035 there will be a shortage of about 24.7 million passengers/year, by 2040 there will be a shortage of about 58.4 million passengers/year and by 2050 there will be a shortage of about 119.4 million passengers/year. To meet the remaining shortage of passenger transport demand, the investment option for high-speed railway is the most optimal and effective.
In addition to the North-South corridor, on the East-West corridors to meet the large freight transport needs to connect international border gates and seaports, the Ministry of Transport is currently preparing to invest in the Vung Ang (Ha Tinh) - Mu Gia (Quang Binh), Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong, Bien Hoa - Vung Tau railway lines to transport goods and passengers together, according to the plan to strive to start construction before 2030.
Source: https://baolangson.vn/duong-sat-toc-do-cao-phat-huy-uu-the-lon-voi-van-tai-hanh-khach-5024073.html
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