Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Danh Huy has just signed a document requesting the Vietnam Railway Authority and Vietnam Railway Corporation (VNR) to urgently inspect, review, and evaluate the current status of the railway infrastructure system, locomotives, and carriages to determine the cause of recent train derailments on the North-South route, especially through Phu Loc district, Thua Thien Hue province.

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The Ministry of Transport requires a thorough fix for the train derailment incident in Hue . Photo: Contributor

After determining the cause, the two above-mentioned units were assigned to implement a solution to thoroughly resolve the problem to ensure safety, and report any shortcomings to the Ministry of Transport for handling according to their authority.

In addition, the Ministry of Transport also requested VNR to strengthen inspection work, develop solutions to ensure train safety, and carry out maintenance work to maintain the technical status of railway works to operate normally to ensure train safety.

VNR is responsible to the Minister of Transport in case of further train derailments in the railway area passing through Phu Loc district, Thua Thien Hue province.

As reported, in the past 2 months, the North-South railway section through Phu Loc district (Thua Thien Hue province) has had 6 consecutive train derailments, including 4 cases of train cars derailing, and on September 28 alone, 2 locomotive derailments occurred. Although these incidents did not cause any human casualties, they affected the traffic flow of the North-South railway.

According to the Traffic Safety Committee of Thua Thien Hue province, the North-South railway line passing through the province is 111.1 km long, managed by two units: Binh Tri Thien Railway Joint Stock Company (managing the 101.1 km long route) and Da Nang - Quang Nam Railway Joint Stock Company (managing the 10 km long route).

The railway section passing through Phu Loc district and especially the Thua Luu - Lang Co section is a mountainous area with many small radius curves in opposite directions.

According to the Provincial Traffic Safety Committee, train derailments are recurring and occur in the Thua Luu - Lang Co section.

Faced with this reality, on September 30, VNR established a working group to inspect and survey the scene to determine the cause.

VNR leaders said that the recent train derailment incident in Thua Thien Hue province occurred at many locations, not concentrated in one point on the railway. The nature of each incident is different, so it is necessary to carefully check and evaluate all factors from the road, carriages, and equipment on the rail to prevent derailment.

Regarding the two incidents of North-South railway freight train locomotives derailing on September 28 through Phu Loc district (Thua Thien Hue province), VNR said that the cause was that the construction unit (Binh Tri Thien Railway Joint Stock Company) did not construct the track according to the prescribed technical standards; the super-elevation design exceeded the basic standards.