A new trend for container railway transport

According to some enterprises, container railway transport in Vietnam has advantages of being able to transport safely a large amount of cargo at lower cost. However, railway transport only takes a small portion compared to road transport, and its growing rate is low in transporting both cargo and passengers. In general, railway transport only accounts for 20% of export and 30% of import. Container railway transport accounts for only 9% of the total amount of cargo, mainly on routes of North-South and Hai Phong-Lao Cai.

RAILWAY- THE UNDERDOG

According the Department of Transport of Hai Phong, Hai Phong Port has a large amount of cargo-through –port and connect with railroad. However 79% of cargo is road-transported, 20% is transported using waterway and only 3% is taken care by railway. As road transport has been overloaded, many enterprises have chosen to transport container by railway. Container railway transport has mainly happened on Hai Phong-Lao Cai route (the fare is only 60% that transported by road) and then Kep-Cai Lan in the future. Most of railway cannot reach seaports, fee for railway transport costs more than that for road transport, in some sections the fee doubles for fees arising from loading/unloading and road transport at the two ends.

Meanwhile, there has been no railway connecting to seaports at the Southern Key Economic Zone: there is currently the North-South route going through Dong Nai-Binh Duong and ending up at Saigon Station. And with the planning till 2020, the feasibility has still been a big question to ask for the railway sector as building express railway section belonging to North-South express railway, building Vung Ang-Cha Lo (Mu Gia) route and a route connecting Tay Nguyen provinces, building a railway serving aluminum exploitation and production in Tay Nguyen provinces and connecting Tay Nguyen to seaports… Also according to the Strategy 35, Bien Hoa-Vung Tau route as designed will have a length of 120km along 51 National Road with 17 stations, that enable the speed of 120km/h. And there will be two sections connecting to Thi Vai and Cai Mep berth areas. The project is in the stage of making investment project. And other routes will be built as HCMC-Nha Trang, HCMC-My Tho-Can Tho, Di An-Loc Ninh connecting to trans-Asia railway…But all of them have still been in projects waiting for consideration.

It is clear that railway transport has been outdated and it is possible to adapt a small portion of container transport, but mostly in some areas in the North. When railway transport will be able to replace road transport is a long-term issue that needs particular strategies and orientations from the Government and relevant ministries and sectors.

A NEW TENDENCY FOR CONTAINER RAILWAY TRANSPORT?

All transport activities currently happened on National roads. To reduce congestions and accidents on roads network, the projects “Container Railway Transport to Reduce Load for Road Network” was set up and set the deadline by 2014: all 40-feet container transport on National Roads 5 and 70 will be carried out by railway and there will be mechanisms controlling trucks with heavy load traveling on road network. There are two stages: (1) from 2012-2013: project for transporting overload and 40-feet container; (2) from 2014-2015: improving container transport ability, organizing effective container railway transport.

From 2014, when Yen Vien-Lao Cai route is finished, its transport ability will be significantly improved: 24 pairs of trains/day and Yen Vien-Ha Long-Cai Lan: 19 pairs/day. According to Vietnam Railways, if 10% of total amount of containers in Hai Phong (about 330TEU/day) can be transported be railway, there will be 200 times of transport reduced on National Road 5 in a day.

The project blew a wind of change to the Vietnam cargo transport sector and formed an expectation on reducing transport cost for enterprises. But after the time of implementation, it has not been effective enough and cost for railway transport is still higher than cost for road transport, and road transport is still overloaded. If there is no more land for new ICDs, no favorable capital for building cars for container transport, no investment for loading-unloading devices, and no improvement for road infrastructure…the feasibility of the project means nothing.