Transportation in Vietnam is improving rapidly in terms of both quantity and quality. Especially road traffic is growing rapidly but the major roads are dangerous and slow to travel on due to outdated design and an inappropriate traffic mix. In recent years, the construction of expressways has accelerated. Air travel is also important for long distance travel. Metro systems are under construction in the two metropolises of

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi ...

and

Ho Chi Minh City , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

Road transport

The total length of the Vietnamese road system is about 222,179 km with 19.0% paved, mainly national roads and provincial roads (source: Vietnam Road Administration, 2004). The national road system length is 17,295 km with 27.6% of its length paved. The provincial road system is 27,762 km of length with 23.6% paved. The road network is relatively well developed, but in poor condition. Due to congestion and lack of safety, the average speed on the national roads is a mere . Road financing comes from a number of sources including the government, overseas donors such as the ADB, WB, JBIC and business organizations. Road investment recovery is mainly through tolls collected on bridges and roads, in accordance with laws mentioned above. Vietnam's road system is classified according to the administrative hierarchy. Each classification is assigned a milestone color and

abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

. * National roads (, abbreviated QL) are administered by the central government. They are marked by white milestones with red tops. On direction signs, they were historically denoted by white on blue markers, but since 2015 are denoted by black on white markers. ** Expressways or freeways (, CT) are denoted by black on yellow markers on direction signs. Guide signs along expressways are green, in contrast to the blue guide signs along surface roads. * Provincial roads ( or , TL or ĐT) are managed by provinces. They are marked by white milestones with blue or green tops. On direction signs, they are denoted by black on white markers. * District roads ( or , HL or ĐH) are managed by

rural district Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of the a ...

s. They are marked by white milestones with brown tops. * Commune roads (, ĐX) are managed by communes. * Urban roads (, ĐĐT) are managed by cities and towns. * Certain service roads (, ĐCD) may be marked by white milestones with yellow tops.

Expressways

Expressways are a rather new concept for Vietnam. Traffic is growing rapidly but the major roads are dangerous due to inappropriate design and an inappropriate traffic mix. Expressways would solve these problems along the key corridors, by separating high speed traffic from slower, local traffic. Vietnam currently recognizes two classes of expressway. Both have a minimum of two lanes in each direction, but Class A has grade separated interchanges, while Class B has at-grade intersections. There are 4 design-speed categories: 60, 80, 100 and 120 km/h. Generally all cars, buses and trucks are permitted on the expressway but ''công nông'' (agricultural vehicles) and all types motorcycles are not.

Road vehicles

;Motorbikes Vietnam is renowned for its motorbike culture. In 1995, over 90% of trips in both Hanoi and Saigon were done by motorcycle. In 2017, 79% of Vietnamese reported using a motorbike regularly. With 45 million registered motorbikes on a 92 million population headcount, Vietnam has one of the highest motorbike ownership rates worldwide. Vietnam is the 4th largest market for motorbike sales, after China, India and Indonesia. 87% of Vietnamese households own a motorbike, a number only surpassed by Thailand. In recent years, the government has expressed the desire to reduce the number of motorbikes in an effort to curb congestion. ;Cars As of 2015, 2 million passenger cars were registered. Car prices are kept high by import taxes and sales tax, which put Vietnam as one of the most expensive countries to buy a car, with up to 2 or 3 times the final price consisting of taxes and fees. In 2016, a

Lexus LX The is a full-size luxury SUV sold by Lexus, a luxury division of Toyota since January 1996, having entered manufacturing in November 1995. It is Lexus' largest and most expensive luxury SUV. Four generations have been produced, all based heavi ...

was priced at 7.3 billion VND (USD 315,000), a Toyota Innova at 800 million VND (USD 35,000), Despite this, car sales are growing at double digit rates each year.

Water transport

Ferries

Most river crossings have long been replaced by bridges, however ferry crossings still operate for vehicles not allowed on expressways. * Cat Lai ferry, between Ho Chi Minh City and Long Thanh, crossing the Dong Nai River. * Between Ho Chi Minh City and Vung Tau, a high-speed passenger ferry service is available.

Ports and harbors

Cam Ranh Cam Ranh () is a city in southern Khánh Hòa Province, in the South Central Coast region of Vietnam. Geography It is the second-largest city in the province, after Nha Trang. It is located on Cam Ranh Bay. As of 2009 the city had a population ...

– large deep water port and used by

Marco Polo Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...

during his voyages to China; formerly a major military facility for the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

and US Navy during the 1960s; later used by the Soviet Navy and the Vietnamese Navy *

Da Nang Nang or DanangSee also Danang Dragons ( ; vi, Đà Nẵng, ) is a class-1 municipality and the fifth-largest city in Vietnam by municipal population. It lies on the coast of the East Sea of Vietnam at the mouth of the Hàn River, and is one ...

– Tien Sa seaport is the third largest sea port in Vietnam after Ho Chi Minh City and Hai Phong; handles 3-4 million tons of cargo annually *

Hai Phong Haiphong ( vi, Hải Phòng, ), or Hải Phòng, is a major industrial city and the third-largest in Vietnam. Hai Phong is also the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the Red River delta. Haiphong w ...

Saigon Port Saigon Port is a network of ports in Ho Chi Minh City. The port name is derived from the former name of the city. By 2013, it has become the 24th busiest container port in the world. History Saigon Port played an important role in the foundatio ...

* Hong Gai *

Qui Nhơn Quy Nhon ( vi, Quy Nhơn ) is a coastal city in Bình Định province in central Vietnam. It is composed of 16 wards and five communes with a total of . Quy Nhon is the capital of Bình Định province. As of 2019 its population was 457,400. H ...

Nha Trang Nha Trang ( or ; ) is a coastal city and capital of Khánh Hòa Province, on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bounded on the north by Ninh Hoà town, on the south by Cam Ranh city and on the west by Diên Khánh District. The city has ...

* Nghi Son (

Thanh Hóa Thanh Hóa () is the capital of Thanh Hóa Province. The city is situated in the east of the province on the Ma River (Sông Mã), about 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Hanoi and 1560 kilometers (969 miles) north of Ho Chi Minh City. Thanh ...

) * Son Duong (

Hà Tĩnh Hà Tĩnh () is a city in Vietnam.Atlas of the World', Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 236. It is the capital of Hà Tĩnh Province, and lies in the North Central Coast region. It is located on National Highway 1A. The Vietnamese capital Hanoi ...

) * Dung Quất (

Quảng Ngãi Quảng Ngãi () is a city in central Vietnam. It serves as the capital city of Quảng Ngãi Province. Quảng Ngãi City borders Tư Nghĩa District to the south and west, Sơn Tịnh District to the northwest and Bình Sơn District to the ...

) *

Vũng Tàu Vũng Tàu (''Hanoi accent:'' , ''Saigon accent:'' ) is the largest city of Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province in southern Vietnam. The city area is , consists of 13 urban wards and one commune of Long Sơn Islet. Vũng Tàu was the capital of the pr ...

Vietnam has 17,702 km of waterways; 5,000 km of which are navigable by vessels up to 1.8 m draft.

Merchant marine

* Total: 579 ships (1,000 GT or over) * Ships by type: barge 1, bulk 142, cargo 335, chemical tanker 23, container 19, liquified gas 7, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 48, refrigerated cargo 1, roll on/roll off 1, specialized tanker 1 * Registered in other countries: 86 (Cambodia 1, Kiribati 2, Mongolia 33, Panama 43, Taiwan 1, Tuvalu 6) (2010)

Air transport

Air travel is rapidly increasing in importance. The route between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City has been world's 7th busiest airline route by seat capacity since 2016.

Airports

Vietnam operates 37 civil airports, including three international gateways: Noi Bai serving Hanoi,

serving Da Nang City, and

Tan Son Nhat Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport ( vi, Sân bay quốc tế Tân Sơn Nhất or Cảng hàng không quốc tế Tân Sơn Nhất) is the busiest airport in Vietnam with 32.5 million passengers in 2016 and 38.5 million passengers in 2018 ...

serving Ho Chi Minh City. Tan Son Nhat is the largest, handling 75 percent of international passenger traffic.

Vietnam Airlines Vietnam Airlines ( vi, Hãng Hàng không Quốc gia Việt Nam, lit=Vietnam National Airlines) is the flag carrier of Vietnam. The airline was founded in 1956 and later established as a state-owned enterprise in April 1989. Vietnam Airlines ...

, the national airline, has a fleet of 82 aircraft that link Vietnam with 49 foreign cities.http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Vietnam.pdf (public domain) The second largest domestic carrier is VietJet Air, serving 16 domestic destinations and 5 international destinations, and third largest is Bamboo Airways. Airports with civil service *Total : 37 *Airports with runways over 3,047 m : 9 *Airports with runways from 2,438 to 3,047 m :6 *Airports with runways from 1,524 to 2,437 m :13 *Airports with runways from 914 to 1,523 m :9 Heliports *Total: 1

Railways

The Vietnamese railway network has a total length of , dominated by the

single track Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

North–South Railway running between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The national railway network uses mainly , although there are several and mixed gauge lines in the North of the country. There were 278 stations on the Vietnamese railway network as of 2005, most of which are located along the North–South line. The Vietnamese railway network is owned and operated by the state-owned enterprise

Vietnam Railways Vietnam Railways (VNR, ) is the state-owned operator of the railway system in Vietnam. The principal route is the single-track North–South Railway line, running between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. This was built at the metre ga ...

(VNR), which operates a number of different subsidiaries involved in construction, communications, training, and other activities connected to railway maintenance. The overall condition of railway infrastructure in Vietnam varies from poor to fair; most of the network remains in need of rehabilitation and upgrading, having received only temporary repair from damages suffered during decades of war. A joint Japanese-Vietnamese evaluation team found that the poor state of railway infrastructure was the fundamental cause for most railway accidents, of which the most common types are train crashes against vehicles and persons, especially at illegal

level crossings A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term also ...

;

derailment In rail transport, a derailment occurs when a rail vehicle such as a train comes off its rails. Although many derailments are minor, all result in temporary disruption of the proper operation of the railway system and they are a potentially ...

s caused by failure to decrease speed was also noted as a common cause of accidents.

International railway links

;People's Republic of China Two railways connect Vietnam to the People's Republic of China: the western Yunnan–Vietnam Railway, from

Haiphong Haiphong ( vi, Hải Phòng, ), or Hải Phòng, is a major industrial city and the third-largest in Vietnam. Hai Phong is also the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the Red River delta. Haiphong w ...

to Kunming, and the eastern railway from

Nanning Nanning (; ; za, Namzningz) is the capital and largest city by population of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in Southern China. It is known as the "Green City" because of its abundance of lush subtropical foliage. Located in the South of ...

. The railway into Yunnan is a metre gauge line, the only such line to operate inside China; it may, however, be converted to standard gauge. Railway service along the Chinese portion of the route is currently suspended. Cross-border service was available until 2002, when floods and landslides, which frequently caused delays along the route, caused serious damage to the tracks on the Chinese side. Hanoi–Đồng Đăng Railway access to

is done through the border at Đồng Đăng, in Lạng Sơn Province. Regular service generally entails stopping at the border, changing from a Vietnamese metre-gauge train to a Chinese standard-gauge train, and continuing on to Nanning. The Yunnan–Vietnam Railway will form the Chinese part of the Singapore-Kunming Rail Link, which is expected to be completed in 2015. ;Cambodia and Laos There are currently no railway connections between Vietnam and

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thaila ...

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

. As part of plans established by

ASEAN ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military ...

, however, two new railways are under development: Saigon–Lộc Ninh Railway connecting

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Cambodia, most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become ...

, Cambodia, and one connecting the North–South Railway to

Thakhek Thakhek (Lao language: ທ່າແຂກ), the capital of Khammouane Province, is a town in south-central Laos on the Mekong River. The Third Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge, linking Thakhek and Nakhon Phanom, Thailand, across the river, started i ...

in Laos. The Vietnamese portion of the Phnom Penh railway would begin with a junction of the North–South Railway at Dĩ An Railway Station, and would end in Lộc Ninh, Bình Phước Province, close to the Cambodian border, linking up with a similar project on the Cambodian side. According to the plan established by ASEAN, this stretch is scheduled for completion by 2020; it will form part of the

Kunming–Singapore railway The Kunming–Singapore railway, increasingly called the Pan-Asia railway Network is a network of railways that connects China, Singapore and all the countries of mainland Southeast Asia. The concept originated with the British and French co ...

project, overseen by the ASEAN–Mekong Basin Development Cooperation (AMBDC). Vientiane - Vũng Áng Railway would run between Vung Ang, a port in

Hà Tĩnh Province Hà is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as He in Chinese and Ha in Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language ...

, to connect with the North–South Railway at Tân Ấp Railway Station in Quảng Bình Province, then crossing through the Mụ Giạ Pass towards Thakhek. According to plans established by ASEAN, the line may then be extended via Thakhek all the way to the Laotian capital

Vientiane Vientiane ( , ; lo, ວຽງຈັນ, ''Viangchan'', ) is the capital and largest city of Laos. Vientiane is divided administratively into 9 cities with a total area of only approx. 3,920 square kilometres and is located on the banks of ...

. Both Laos and Thailand have expressed interest in the project as a shorter export gateway to the Pacific Ocean.

High-speed rail

;North–South Express Railway National railway company

has proposed a

high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...

link between

and

, capable of running at speeds of . Once completed, the high-speed rail line—using Japanese

Shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond ...

technology—would allow trains to complete the Hanoi–Ho Chi Minh City journey in less than six hours, compared to around 30 hours taken on the existing railway. Vietnamese prime minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng had originally set an ambitious target, approving a line to be completed by 2013, with 70 percent of funding (initially estimated at US$33 billion) coming from Japanese ODA, and the remaining 30 percent raised through loans. Later reports raised estimated costs to US$56 billion (almost 60 percent of Vietnam's GDP in 2009) for a completion date in the mid-2030s. On June 19, 2010, after a month of deliberation, Vietnam's National Assembly rejected the high speed rail proposal due to its high cost; National Assembly deputies had asked for further study of the project. In 2018 a new feasibility study was submitted and based on that the government wants to reconsider the cost-benefit of the project. Plans show the first phase of construction to build sections between Hanoi and Vinh, and simultaneously between Ho Chi Minh City and Nha Trang both to be finished by 2032 with the entire north-south link to be finished by 2045. ;Ho Chi Minh City–Cần Thơ Express Railway Another high-speed rail has been proposed to connect Ho Chi Minh City to Southeast Vietnam and

Can Tho Can may refer to: Containers * Aluminum can * Drink can * Oil can * Steel and tin cans * Trash can * Petrol can * Metal can (disambiguation) Music * Can (band), West Germany, 1968 ** ''Can'' (album), 1979 * Can (South Korean band) Other ...

Metro

The two biggest cities in Vietnam, Hanoi and Saigon, with Ho Chi Minh City Metro (Saigon) currently under construction, both projects have suffered from delays, budget deficits and budget overruns. The Hanoi metro system began operations on November 6, 2021, and the Ho Chi Minh City Metro is expected to be opened in 2024.

Pipelines

In April 1995, a 125-kilometer natural gas pipeline connecting Bach Ho with a power plant near Vũng Tàu went into operation. With the subsequent addition of compressors, the volume pumped rose to more than 1 billion cubic meters per year. In 2005 a 399-kilometer underwater pipeline, the world's longest, began to carry natural gas onshore from the Nam Con Son basin. The pipeline's anticipated capacity is 2 billion cubic meters per year, while the basin has an estimated 59 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves. Vietnam has 28 km of condensate pipeline, 10 km of condensate/gas pipeline, 216 of natural gas line, and 206 km of pipeline for refined products.

References

External links

Ministry of Transport, Vietnam

Maps

UN Map
{{Automotive industry in Vietnam Transport in Vietnam, bn:ভিয়েতনাম#পরিবহন ব্যবস্থা