As some of you may know, I recently had a trip to Ha Noi for 3 weeks, and it would be really remiss if I did not experience the Cat Linh - Ha Dong urban railway. To be honest, even though I have ridden most of the familiar means of transport such as bicycles, motorbikes, cars, ships or planes, I have never taken a train before. It was a great experience when being on the Cat Linh - Ha Dong metro line which is different and more modern than the current North-South railway in Viet Nam. Let's take a look at some pictures from my interesting experience.
After 10 years under construction, the Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban railway officially went into commercial operation on November 6, 2021. This is the first urban railway as well as the first rapid transit line in Vietnam to serve the travel demands of people in the urban area, opening a new type of public transport in my country.
The Cat Linh – Ha Dong urban railway has 12 stations including Cat Linh station, La Thanh station, Thai Ha station, Lang station, Thuong Dinh station, Vanh Dai 3 station, Phung Khoang station, Van Quan station, Ha Dong Station, La Khe Station, Van Khe Railway Station, Yen Nghia Station.
I parked my motorbike at Cat Linh station and entered the station under the guidance of some signposts and staff here. In addition to the traditional ticket counter, there is also a modern vending machine carrying an eye-catching green colour. The screen of the machine clearly displays necessary information such as a map of 12 stations, the single journey tickets purchase initiate, the recharge stored value ticket process in both Vietnamese and English. In addition to the receipt input like an ATM machine, the difference in this machine is that it has inputs to receive paper money and return change and give tickets. The affordable fare is suitable for most people, ranging from VND 7,000 to 15,000 depending on the station you want to get off. Remember to only put banknotes into the machine with denominations of less than VND 50,000 to buy tickets. If you do not have any banknote value less than that threshold, you can exchange money or buy tickets directly at the ticket counter.
Then just need to go past this ticket gate and go up the elevator to reach the waiting areas for the train.
While waiting for the train to arrive, I took advantage of taking a few pictures here. The time between trains is very short, about 6 minutes, so don't worry about waiting for ages for the next train.
The train had already arrived, but I still tried to take some more pictures hihi. The clean and luxurious hull is grey with 2 green lines running along.
Everything inside’s so pretty, isn't it? Although the weather in Ha Noi is fairly cold in December, the inside of the train still has an air conditioning system generating a stable cool temperature to bring passengers a pleasant feeling. I heard that on the first day of opening for services, there were a lot of people coming here to experience it. However, it was not crowded the same as that day on the day I came here.
Catching sight of Ha Noi from a different perspective than ever from high above gave me the best angle to enjoy the architecture of buildings, lakes, traffic from here. Unluckily I got motion sickness so I felt dizzy after taking the train. I don't know about the others because the train runs absolutely smooth.
At Cat Linh station, there are some pictures of the Cat Linh - Ha Dong railway located here, so I took some photos of them with my camera.
Overview of Cat Linh - Ha Dong railway project
The railways
The trains' control system
Some train stations seen from above
Thai Ha station. I took it on the way to Cat Linh station
This train's model is pretty cute but it's quite tall for my height. So I borrowed a plastic chair nearby to take the photo hehe.
I love Ha Noi Capital.
Although I was dizzy while being on the train, I am glad that I had an interesting experience. Hopefully, Vietnam will have many modern urban railway lines like this in the future to meet the travel needs of the Vietnamese. In the meantime, let’s visit Hanoi to experience the Cat Linh- Ha Dong urban railway.
Thank you so much for reading my post.
Have a warm night 😍
Have a warm night 😍