The opening of the Saigon–Cholon steam tramway line, 27 December 1881. (Source: Wikimedia Commons. Official photograph from the collection of Jean-Pierre Vergez-Larrouy)
That same year saw the start of construction of the first railway of regional significance, completed on 20 July 1885. The 71 km Saigon–My Tho line reduced the journey time between the two cities from 12 hours to a mere 3 and established a connection between Saigon and the Mekong Delta.
In 1884, as a result of the Sino-French War, Tonkin (in northern Vietnam) came under French control, after which the whole of Vietnam fell under French rule. The first railway in the Protectorate of Tonkin, connecting Lang Son with Phu Lang Thuong (now known as Bac Giang) and with a gauge of just 600 mm, opened in December 1894.
A works train during construction of the Phu Lang Thuong–Lang Son narrow-gauge line, 1894. (Source: www.historicvietnam.com)
Meanwhile, on 17 October 1887, the Indochinese Union was formed, headed by a Governor-General. From June 1891 to December 1894 this post was held by Dr. Jean-Marie de Lanessan — a man of wide-ranging interests, a statesman, biologist, and physician. Convinced of the need to build railways linking the various parts of French Indochina, de Lanessan identified several key routes to be constructed as a matter of priority, among them the lines connecting the Protectorate of Tonkin with Saigon (the North–South Railway) and with Lao Cai on the Chinese border (the Yunnan line).
The implementation of these and other plans began during the governorship of Paul Doumer. One of the finest colonial administrators in the whole of French history (in the estimation of General de Gaulle), and the son of a railway trackman, he headed the Indochinese Union from 1897 to 1902. This Governor-General, noted for his authoritarian style of leadership, played an enormous role in the development of Vietnam's transport system. It is notable that the French press repeatedly mocked Paul Doumer for his passion for railways, dubbing him “the railwayman.” He would later become President of France and was assassinated in 1932 by Gorgulov, a Russian émigré and fascist.
In 1897, the French government authorized the construction of the Yunnan line (in its entirety) and of several sections of the North–South Railway, approving the provision of a loan of 200 million francs over the following year. Construction work began immediately thereafter. By 1902, the Phu Lang Thuong–Lang Son line had been regauged to 1,000 mm, with the construction of new sections from Hanoi to Phu Lang Thuong and from Lang Son to the Chinese border at Dong Dang, reaching a length of 163 km. The first section of the Yunnan line, from Hanoi to Hai Phong, 102 km in length, was also built, incorporating the famous Long Bien Bridge in Hanoi — at that time the largest in Southeast Asia.
The Paul Doumer Bridge (Long Bien) across the Hong Ha (Red) River, built 1898–1902. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Hanoi thus became a major transport hub, and in 1902 Paul Doumer transferred the capital of French Indochina to the city from Saigon. Meanwhile, in 1903, construction of the Yunnan line continued in a northwesterly direction toward the border city of Lao Cai; the entire Hanoi–Lao Cai line, 296 km in length, opened in 1906. In 1910 the line reached its final destination — the Chinese city of Kunming. The construction of the Yunnan line was an extraordinarily difficult undertaking, entailing not only enormous expense but also a heavy loss of life. At least 12,000 workers died of malaria or in accidents, 10,000 of them in the valley of the Nanxi River alone.
As for the North–South Railway, its construction began in 1899 and continued for more than thirty years. It was carried out in stages: the Hanoi–Vinh section in the north of the country was laid between 1899 and 1905, followed by the Nha Trang–Saigon section in the south from 1905 to 1913. The Vinh–Hue section was built between 1913 and 1927 and, finally, the remaining Hue–Nha Trang section between 1930 and 1936. On 2 October 1936, the entire Hanoi–Saigon line, 1,726 km in length, was placed into permanent operation.
Interior of a 4th-class carriage. Vietnam, 1920s. (Source: www.historicvietnam.com)
End-to-end journeys along the newly built line, which came to be known as the Trans-Indochina Railway, usually took around 60 hours, or two days and three nights. By the end of the 1930s, trains were already running at an average speed of 43 km/h, and the journey time had fallen to roughly 40 hours.
The year 1937 marked the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in Southeast Asia. The railway leading to Yunnan became a channel for military supplies to China's Kuomintang. France's refusal to halt the supply of weapons and other military goods to China via Tonkin ultimately provoked the invasion of French Indochina by Japanese forces in September 1940.
In 1941, the clandestine communist organization the Viet Minh was established in the country, waging a guerrilla campaign against both the French colonial administration — by then entirely under Japanese control — and the Japanese army, which made active use of the railways. Acts of partisan sabotage inflicted considerable damage on the country's railway transport.
Shortly after the end of the Second World War, the First Indochina War (1946–1954) broke out, and the Viet Minh's sabotage of the railways continued, now directed against the French army. By the end of 1947, the French had managed to return several railway sections to service: Saigon–Ninh Hoa, Saigon–Loc Ninh (which had linked Vietnam and Cambodia since 1933), Saigon–My Tho, and Hue–Tourane (Da Nang). In February 1951, the French army in Indochina took delivery of its first armored train, La Rafale, which began running on the Saigon–Nha Trang section of the North–South Railway.
Mortar crews of the French Foreign Legion aboard the armored train La Rafale. (Source: foto-history.livejournal.com)
The use of the armored train, however, could not stop the partisans, who stole rails under cover of night and used them to maintain a 300 km Viet Minh–controlled section between Ninh Hoa and Da Nang. The war between the French and the Vietnamese patriots ended in 1954, following the signing of the Geneva Accords, when Vietnam — together with its railway system — was divided by a demarcation line along the Ben Hai River into the pro-French “South Vietnam” (the Republic of Vietnam), with its capital at Saigon, and “North Vietnam” (the Democratic Republic of Vietnam), with its capital at Hanoi, which chose the socialist path of development.
The peaceful respite, however, was short-lived: in 1955 the Second Indochina War began, of which the Vietnam War between North and South Vietnam — accompanied by US intervention — formed a part. Throughout the war the railway network, and the North–South main line in particular, was subjected to bombing and sabotage by the opposing sides, and as the conflict escalated many sections were closed. The situation was aggravated by the devastating Typhoons Joan and Iris, which struck Vietnam in 1964.
The railways of North Vietnam (and above all their bridges) were especially badly damaged by the American bombing campaigns of 1965–1968 and 1972.
American aircraft bombing the Hai Duong railway bridge during Operation Linebacker I, 1972. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
It may seem surprising, but even during the Vietnam War the reconstruction and construction of railways continued. The Americans, for instance, helped the “southerners” carry out a major overhaul of the Saigon–Hue section and complete the construction of several branches begun by the French. The railway troops of the People's Republic of China, deployed in North Vietnam at the end of June 1965, were tasked with repairing the damage caused by the American bombing during Operation Rolling Thunder. By the end of December of that same year, the reconstruction of 363 km of the Hanoi–Lao Cai and Hanoi–Dong Dang lines had been completed, where the Chinese added a third rail, converting the railway lines of the meter gauge adopted in Vietnam into mixed-gauge 1,000/1,435 mm sections. In addition, numerous new stations, bridges, and tunnels were built, as well as an entirely new 1,435 mm gauge railway line, Thai Nguyen–Kep (57 km), which became a strategic link between the Hanoi–Thai Nguyen (built in 1962) and Hanoi–Dong Dang lines.
After the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, the socialist government of a reunified Vietnam took control of the former South Vietnamese railway. The North–South line was restored and returned to operation on 31 December 1976.
The first “Reunification Express” arrives in Saigon from Hanoi, 4 January 1977, colorized photograph. (Source: www.historicvietnam.com)
On the main line, 1,334 bridges, 27 tunnels, 158 stations, and 1,370 switches were repaired. In order to supply the North–South main line with materials for repairs, some of the railway branches adjoining it, such as Thap Cham–Da Lat, were dismantled.
The Sino-Vietnamese War of February–March 1979 brought rail communication between the two countries to a halt and isolated the Vietnamese network; in particular, the bridge connecting Lao Cai and Hekou on the Yunnan line was destroyed by sabotage during the conflict. Rail service between Vietnam and China was not restored until 1996.
Vietnam's complex and dramatic history accounts for the diverse locomotive fleet in the country. Thus, between 1963 and 1965 the United States sent South Vietnam a consignment of 48 U8B diesel locomotives from General Electric Transportation, while Australia, between 1968 and 1970, supplied 13 GH500 shunting diesel locomotives manufactured by Walkers Limited, Maryborough. The Soviet Union, in turn, between 1967 and 1972 delivered to North Vietnam 30 TU5E-series diesel locomotives from the Kambarka Works, adapted for operation on the 1,000 mm gauge.
Following reunification, Vietnam purchased diesel locomotives from socialist countries — Romania, Czechoslovakia, and the USSR (TU7E, TU7AE, TU8E, TGM8E).
A TU7AE diesel locomotive (D4H-866 under the Vietnamese designation system) with a heritage train on the restored Da Lat–Trai Mat section, 4 December 2024. (Source: railgallery.ru. Photo: Sekki Jidai)
There were also cases of the supply of highly exotic rolling stock. In 1986, the Soviet Union and Poland, as a form of aid, allocated to Vietnam from their strategic reserves 10 “captured” TE-series steam locomotives (received as reparations from Germany), built in 1943–1944, for operation on the 1,435 mm gauge.
Dating from the same period is the construction of the western bypass of the Hanoi railway junction, incorporating a magnificent two-level bridge 3,250 m in length across the Red River. The line was built with the technical assistance and financial support of the USSR and opened in 1989.
At present, the backbone of the country's locomotive fleet consists of diesel locomotives manufactured by the Chinese company CRCC Ziyang Co, supplied to Vietnam since 2001 (100 locomotives of the CKD7F series). Since 2007, moreover, these locomotives have been assembled at the plant in Gia Lam (within Greater Hanoi). A large number of Soviet- and Czechoslovak-built diesel locomotives, and even sixty-year-old American “veterans” from General Electric, also remain in freight service to this day.
A CKD7F diesel locomotive (D19E-976) at the head of a passenger train on the Hanoi–Gia Lam stretch, 20 April 2025. For safety reasons, freight traffic is prohibited on this section; freight trains use the western bypass of Hanoi.
(Source: railgallery.ru. Photo: Yuri Mokryak)
The length of Vietnam's railway network currently stands at 2,600 km, of which 2,170 km are meter-gauge lines, 180 km are standard-gauge sections, and 250 km are mixed-gauge. All of the country's railways are single-track and non-electrified.
Nevertheless, electrified, double-track rail sections have recently appeared in the country. On 6 November 2021 the first phase, and on 8 August 2024 the second phase, of the metro opened in Hanoi; today the Vietnamese capital already has 22 km of metro lines. Soon afterward, on 22 December 2024, the first phase of the metro, 20 km in length, opened in Ho Chi Minh City. Both cities use the 1,435 mm gauge.
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is currently undertaking the reconstruction of the North–South Railway. A number of major projects have been proposed, including the restoration of some previously dismantled railway lines — among them links with Cambodia — as well as the connection of the railways of Vietnam and Laos. Before 2030, construction is planned to begin on two high-speed railway (HSR) lines providing access to China — one from the ports of Quang Ninh and Hai Phong via Hanoi to the border province of Lao Cai, the other from Hanoi to the border province of Lang Son. In the longer term, the construction of an HSR line between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is also a possibility, which would reduce the journey time from 30 to around 6 hours.
A joint project of 1520International and the Institute for Economics and Transport Development (IETD)
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