When this article reaches readers nationwide, the first train of 19 carriages carrying about 500 tons of cassava starch departing from Song Than station ( Binh Duong ) has safely arrived at Pho Dien station, Zhengzhou (Henan province, China).
This is the inaugural shipment of the international freight train transporting export goods from Song Than station to China, after Kep station in Bac Giang officially joined the race before. As the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Railways Corporation ( VNR ) Dang Sy Manh said, the railway industry has gone through difficult roads. The trains are accelerating to regain the feeling of "speed" on the international freight track, regaining the position of a golden age.
Lychee and fresh seafood loaded onto ships for export
On the afternoon of June 15, 2023, the first train carrying 3 specialized containers with 56 tons of fresh Luc Ngan lychees officially departed from Kep international transit station, Bac Giang province, for official export to China. This is the first time Bac Giang lychees have been exported by rail to the billion-people market. According to the process, after the lychees are packaged, they will be loaded onto containers and brought to Kep station to set up an international transit train to Dong Dang border gate station, completing the procedures for exporting the goods. Self-propelled, self-refrigerated containers help preserve goods from the warehouse to the wholesale market in China, always fresh and maintaining high quality.
The first train transporting Luc Ngan litchi from Kep station (Bac Giang) to China, marking a new milestone in international transport of Vietnam railways.
NGOC NAM
At the event, many businesses and farmers could not hide their joy because China has long been the main export market for Luc Ngan litchi, but most of it is transported by road, only a few by air due to high costs. Transporting by road takes a long time due to frequent traffic jams, which sometimes affects the consumption of litchi, especially during times of congestion in the border areas of Lang Son and Lao Cai provinces. Therefore, the batch of Luc Ngan litchi exported by rail has paved the way for Vietnamese litchi to penetrate deeper into the large domestic market in China. If in the past, farmers and businesses could only export lychees by road to neighboring border provinces, now with the railway, fresh lychees can reach China's largest commercial centers such as Shanghai, Beijing... and from there continue to third markets such as Russia, Eastern European countries... More than a month later, at Song Than station (Binh Duong), Hanoi Railway Transport Joint Stock Company (HARACO) continued to launch an international transit train carrying refrigerated containers running on the Song Than - China railway line. The train consists of 21 40-foot container trucks (carrying fruits, agricultural products, fresh seafood), high-value goods that need to be well managed and some items have been cleared at Song Than station. This is also a step to create momentum for exporting goods at Song Than international transit station to countries in the OSZD bloc (OSZD Railway Cooperation Organization with 28 members in Asia and Europe), and at the same time transporting imported goods from OSZD members to the southern region. After the first refrigerated containers successfully transported fresh agricultural and seafood products to foreign countries, VNR continued to organize the reception of the first train on the route from Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province (China) via Yen Vien Station, Hanoi. This is the first time that Vietnam Railways has connected to Shijiazhuang - a city of 11 million people, which is also a hub for transporting goods through third countries and many countries in the world such as Mongolia, Kazakhstan, etc. Most recently, on the afternoon of September 27, VNR and the People's Committee of Binh Duong province officially launched an international freight train transporting export goods from Song Than station to China by a 19-car train carrying about 500 tons of cassava starch departing from Song Than station to Pho Dien, Zhengzhou (Ha Nam province, China). Song Than international freight station is the largest freight station in the south, with a capacity of 1.6 million tons of goods/year, but for a long time it has only served domestic freight transport, has not participated in international freight transport activities, so its potential for transporting export and import goods has not been fully exploited. The main transported goods are consumer goods, textiles, electronics, automobiles - motorbikes, agricultural products and food. Therefore, the international transit train carrying export goods from Song Than station to China marks the first time Song Than international transit station directly participates in serving import and export activities of Binh Duong province. Although it was quite slow, Vietnam Railways is joining the intermodal train race with other countries in the region with rapid and steady steps.
Bringing the Railways Back to Their Glory Days
Vietnam's railways also had a glorious time when a series of branch lines covered all localities, border gates, and trading seaports such as Dong Dang, Lao Cai, Hai Phong, Thap Cham - Da Lat, Saigon - Loc Ninh, especially the North - South railway line completed in 1936. During the war, railways played an important role in transporting troops and goods, although the North - South railway system was always the focus of US aircraft bombing. After 1975, railways reached their peak when they contributed up to 35% of the transport market share, becoming the main artery of the economy when transporting large volumes of goods and passengers in the context of limited road and air transport at that time. Perhaps the more glorious the past, the more regrets it left. Over the past 3 decades, railways have increasingly lost their position, being "overtaken" by road and the connection with waterways is very poor. Even at some ports, railways have been dismantled such as at Cua Lo, Quy Nhon, and Saigon ports. Railways are also absent in two very important regions: the Mekong Delta and the Central Highlands. VNR Chairman Dang Sy Manh admitted that the railway industry has gone through dangerous routes that prevented trains from going fast, and sometimes even had to stop running. However, in the past 5 years, VNR has maintained freight forwarding activities, and initially affirmed its advantages and potential for developing international freight forwarding activities by rail to China, Central Asian countries, and Europe. Transport businesses have launched new products to meet the market, such as refrigerated container ships, container ships specializing in routes to China and transiting this country to third countries in Europe, Russia, Mongolia, Central Asia, etc. This is the reason why in recent years, the output of international freight forwarding by rail has increased by an average of 6% per year. In 2022 alone, although many sources of goods have decreased, the output and revenue of international freight forwarding for the whole year still grew strongly. Identifying that promoting international intermodal transport is a solid step on the journey to regain the position of ships, at the end of 2022, VNR proactively developed a Plan to improve the capacity of international intermodal transport by rail and was approved by the Prime Minister, assigned to the Ministry of Transport to preside over the implementation. According to this plan, from now until 2030, railways will be invested in, upgraded, and renovated in infrastructure, especially freight stations, with public investment sources, and VNR will strive to increase the output of international intermodal transport by rail from 1.1 million tons/year to 3-4 times. In addition, when border gates are opened right at the logistics area or right in the industrial park, import/export enterprises can carry out customs procedures right inland, instead of having to go to the border and wait in line like before. This helps to reduce a lot of time and procedures for businesses, contributing to reducing logistics costs and lowering product prices when they reach consumers. At the same time, it helps localities have conditions to develop regional socio-economics, while railways also have conditions to increase freight transport revenue.
The train carrying cassava starch rolled from Song Than station to China on the afternoon of September 27.
HM
"The goal of the railway industry is to bring the border gate deep into the interior, creating favorable conditions for businesses and localities not only in transporting goods but also in developing ICD warehouses and logistics. With the international transit station deep in the interior, with the support of the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Customs, goods will be inspected by the customs sector, cleared at the inland stations, sealed with lead and then only need to be declared when arriving at the border, greatly reducing time. For example, an intermodal train carrying a maximum of 21 - 25 containers when arriving at the border station, completing customs declaration procedures only takes 2 hours," Mr. Manh shared.
Bringing Vietnam deeply connected to the world
During the meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang on June 26, 2023, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh proposed that the two sides strengthen the connection between railways, roads, and sea routes, and research and develop a number of standard-gauge, high-speed railway routes connecting the two countries. The high-speed railway route connecting the two countries is not a new idea. Since 2000, the high-speed railway system approved by ASEAN, expected to cost over 3 billion USD, has drawn a route across Vietnam in 2 sections: One is the route connecting Ho Chi Minh City with Loc Ninh to Cambodia, with a length of about 130 km, this phase is being studied and built with a 1 m railway gauge, with 12 stations, starting at Di An station in Binh Duong and ending at Hoa Lu border station. The second railway route is Vung Ang - Mu Gia (Ha Tinh) connecting to Laos. This line is about 119 km long, 1 m gauge, with 12 stations, 7 tunnels and 24 bridges. However, up to now there has been no detailed plan to realize the idea of building the above 2 railway lines. In early 2011, China also announced a plan to build a high-speed railway system from the Zhuang autonomous region, Guangxi to Singapore, including a section passing through Vietnam. In China's "huge" railway network, connecting with Vietnam by rail, up to now, only a few import-export freight routes between the two countries have been put into operation via the Anhui - Hanoi and Chengdu - Hanoi routes. In addition, after reopening tourism in early 2023, the Department of Transport of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (China) informed that this locality and Vietnam have just adjusted and added a pair of international road transport border gates Ai Diem (China) - Chi Ma (Lang Son, Vietnam) and 10 international road passenger transport routes. Notably, Guangxi aims to focus on promoting railway connections with Vietnam in particular and the ASEAN region in general in 2023. This locality is planning 3 railway routes, of which the northern route will connect Nanning, Jingxi, Long Bang with Thai Nguyen province and Hanoi; the middle route will connect Nanning, Bang Tuong with Dong Dang and Hanoi; the southern route connects Nanning, Qinzhou, Fangcheng Port, Dongxing with Hai Phong and Hanoi cities. In addition, the Chinese government is also looking forward to working with Vietnam to promote a standard gauge railway through China connecting Vietnam with Asian and European markets. The Global Times - one of China's leading media outlets - quoted many railway experts as saying that the vital Vietnam - China railway could become a multi-purpose railway, helping Vietnam connect more deeply with the world, improving the efficiency of trade with Asian and European markets. Researchers also emphasized that efforts to strengthen connectivity between China and Vietnam will further promote the development of the Trans-Asian Railway (TAR). The China - Laos railway, the first leg of this international railway network, has shown how strong the potential of this railway connection is. Better railway connectivity will bring great benefits to Vietnam, which has developed into an important production center for many types of goods in recent years. At the same time, it is a strong boost to tourism and exchange of visitors between the two countries as well as countries in the ASEAN region.
Socialization of railway investment still stuck
Goods transported by rail through Lao Cai to China only have a 1m gauge to Hekou, then must be unloaded onto another train to transport deep into inland China, which will incur costs for customers. Currently, only intermodal transport is carried out through Dong Dang because the gauge is the same as other countries, 1.435m. If the infrastructure is not improved soon, it will be a huge limitation. The leader of the Ministry of Transport said that the Ministry has developed projects according to the proposal of VNR, calling for socialization to attract investment in the railway infrastructure system. However, the implementation process has encountered problems with the mechanism for managing and exploiting public assets; the mechanism for socializing infrastructure development activities in the form of public-private partnership (PPP) and the Project on management, use and exploitation of national railway infrastructure assets invested by the State... so up to now, the projects are mainly in the proposal stage.
In the period of 2022 - 2025, the Ministry of Transport plans to continue investing and upgrading stations serving international intermodal transport including: Dong Dang, Lao Cai, Vat Cach, Kim Lien, Dieu Tri. In the coming time, VNR will invest in more locomotives and wagons, and propose competent authorities to hand over stations and freight yards to VNR to promote the initiative of the enterprise. The goal is to increase the overall international intermodal transport output by rail to 4.5 million tons/year.
Photo: VNA
Infrastructure is the biggest bottleneck of the railway industry.
The railway transport market share is increasingly narrowing due to many reasons such as: The railway was built by the French more than 140 years ago, but up to now, not only has it not been further developed, but some sections have also been removed such as Ho Chi Minh City - My Tho; Thap Cham - Da Lat and routes connecting to seaports, industrial parks... Not only that, the existing Vietnamese railway is mainly 1m gauge and has only one track, so no matter how it is developed, it cannot run more than 20 pairs of trains/day and night, while other types of transport are receiving strong investment and development, causing great competitive pressure on railway transport. Every year, capital sources only meet 30 - 40% of the need for maintenance, repair and overhaul. The quality of vehicles has not met the actual needs and the fierce competition of other types of transport... so the narrowing market share of railways is understandable. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Railways Corporation Dang Sy Manh
Comment (0)