Ho Chi Minh City's Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien metro line starts trial run

ABO/NDO- Ho Chi Minh City’s Management Authority for Urban Railways has announced that the Ben Thanh – Suoi Tien metro line started trial run from early this month.

During the trial operation from October 1 -17, the trains will run every 4 minutes and 30 seconds, and operators in all positions including drivers, dispatchers at the control centre, and station staff will be mobilised. A total of 71 workers participate in the trial operation in each shift, with two shifts expected each day.

The trial will be conducted with 47 different scenarios, from normal operation to emergency situations such as fire, explosion, power outage, flooding, or signal loss at different locations along the line.

It will be carried out in two phases with the Japanese NJPT consultants responsible for the first and Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Company 1, the second. Along with the trial operation, BVT System Safety Assessment Consultants - a joint venture of Bureau Veritas of France and TEDI of Vietnam - will monitor, observe, and evaluate the proficiency of workers in emergency situations.

The Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro line spans 19.7 km between District 1's Ben Thanh market and Thu Duc city's Long Thanh depot, featuring three underground and 11 elevated stations. Work on the metro project began in 2012 and experienced various delays, with costs rising to over 43.7 trillion VND (1.71 billion USD). The line has a total of 17 trains, each can carry 930 passengers.

(Source: NDO)