All aboard for the Hanoi-Nanning train
05/01/09 (GMT+7)
Hanoi-Nanning train, the first international-standard train to travel between Hanoi Vietnam and China’s Nanning city began running on January 2.
The made-in-China high-class train will carry up to 250 passengers on hard and soft seats for each journey.
As a result of the railway co-operation agreement between the two countries, the train will leave Ha Noi’s Gia Lam train station at 7.25pm daily and arrive in Nanning at 9.05 the next morning.
The Nanning-Hanoi journey starts at 5.15pm.
The train stops at Bac Giang and Dong Dang stations of Vietnam during the 13-hour journey and Pingxiang, Chongzuo and Nanning in China.
Travellers are required to carry valid passports and visas.
Vietnam Railway Corporation transport business manager Nguyen Huu Tuyen said negotiations to waive passports and visas had begun and to confine check-in procedures to one hour.
Tickets range between US$25 and $40 and groups of at least six will enjoy a 25 per cent discount.
The capital of southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning, is famous worldwide for its stunning landscapes.
Chinese rail workers crew the train with help from Vietnam Railway Corporation employees while in Vietnam.
Ambitious plans
The Viet Nam Railway Corporation planned to build about 400 new locomotives, passenger carriages and freight wagons, its deputy director Nguyen Dat Tuong said yesterday.
The corporation would build 60 passenger carriages, 300 freight wagons and 30 locomotives during the next two years, he said.
It would also repair and refurbish 70 freight wagons.
The deputy director said the corporation would use new technology to build the rolling stock; diversify its products and seek new export markets.
The corporation increased its turnover 16.2 per cent to VND6.87 trillion (US$404 million last year although it did not meet its own target.
Turnover growth of 8 per cent was planned for this year.
(Source: VNS, URL:http://english.vietnamnet.vn/travel/2009/01/822052/)
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