Add scenario for building Northern high-speed railway

Thêm kịch bản làm đường sắt cao tốc Bắc-Nam, vốn đầu tư hơn 71 tỉ USD - Ảnh 1. — The Government has identified priority for allocating investment resources specifically for the high-speed railway project on the North-South axis.

Specifically, the draft proposal for investment in high-speed railway on the North-South axis of the Ministry of Transport presents 3 scenarios:

Scenario 1 is to invest in building a new double-track North-South high-speed railway, 1,435 mm gauge, 1,545 km long, designed speed 350 km/h, load capacity 17 tons per axle, only for passenger trains. At the same time, the existing North-South railway will be upgraded to transport goods, tourists and short-distance passengers. The total investment capital is about 67.32 billion USD.

Scenario 2 - build a new double-track North-South railway line, 1,435 mm gauge, 22.5 tons per axle, operating both passenger and freight trains, design speed 200 - 250 km/h, maximum freight train speed 120 km/h. According to this scenario, the existing North-South railway line will be modernized to transport goods, tourists and short-distance passengers. Total investment capital is about 72.2 billion USD.

Scenario 3, the North-South railway will invest in a double track, 1,435 mm gauge, 22.5 tons per axle, designed speed of 350 km/h, operating passenger trains and reserve for freight when needed. The total investment capital of the project is 68.98 billion USD. If investing in infrastructure, equipment, and vehicles to operate freight trains running North-South, the project investment capital will increase to about 71.69 billion USD.

With this scenario, the North-South high-speed railway line will be completely renovated with 60% bridges, 10% tunnels, and 30% running on the ground. The entire line will have 23 passenger stations, 5 assembly, repair, and maintenance areas, 40 infrastructure maintenance facilities, 5 freight stations, 4 depots, and 28 km of connecting stations to operate freight trains when demand for goods exceeds operating capacity.

In addition, it is necessary to purchase 74 distributed power trains, with 1,184 carriages, with a train running capacity of 175 pairs of trains/day and night (high-speed railway 150 pairs of trains, existing railway 25 pairs of trains), transporting about 133.5 million passengers/year and 20 million tons of goods/year.

The consultant assessed the point of scenario 3 as a passenger-only train, so it is high-speed, comfortable, safe, and competitive with other means of transport. The market share of the North-South corridor is restructured in a more optimal direction. This option also helps the new railway line to be able to transport goods in case the capacity of the existing North-South railway line is overloaded.

However, the disadvantage of this scenario is high investment costs, the larger the speed difference between passenger trains and cargo trains, reducing throughput capacity.

To improve the feasibility of the project in case of investment approval under scenario 3, Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi said that with the integration trend, ensuring international transport requirements in the future operation, the Ministry of Transport needs to study upgrading and modernizing the existing North-South railway line in the direction of replacing the entire current 1,000mm gauge with the standard 1,435mm gauge.

In addition, the North-South high-speed railway project has a length of 1,545km, passing through 20 provinces and cities, while the provinces are making provincial plans, so it is necessary to coordinate with the localities where the project runs to maintain the route agreement, avoiding having to adjust the route, causing increased investment costs.

The Ministry of Construction also noted that with the investment cost of the North-South railway reaching tens of billions of USD, the Ministry of Transport needs to supplement legal bases to propose a preliminary total investment capital to ensure the feasibility of the project.

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