The 130km route from Hanoi's Yen Vien to Ha Long City is currently only serving a few dozen passengers every day.

Ha long Station

The line, invested by Vietnam Railway Authority, lies largely derelict as it bizarrely uses a different gauge width track which means it cannot be linked to the national transit system.

Ha Long Railway Station was upgraded in 2005 at a cost of VND7 trillion (USD333 million). It opened to passengers in 2014. Despite the makeover, the station is almost empty compared to Bai Chay Bus Station.

"Normally, we sell 40 to 50 tickets a day," said the ticket-seller.

Operator Phung Van Minh said the number of passengers greatly fallen from last year. "We had a contract to carry iron from Yen Vien to several coal companies. But now we only have vegetable traders," he said.

Part of the problem is the railway’s perplexing use of a different track gauge. The route to Ha Long Station uses 1.435m tracks while the rest of Vietnam still employs the out-dated and narrower 1m. For destinations such as Lang Son and Lao Cai provinces, commodities need to be shifted from one line to another, meaning higher transport costs than by either road and water.

Passengers are also reluctant to use the line despite the ridiculous four hours required to travel 160 kilometres by road to Ha Long city, the same train route takes a ludicrous 7 hours.

Trinh Vu Khoa, Director of Vietnam Ocean Shipping Agency in Quang Ninh Province, under the Vosa Corporation, said firms would reconsider their use of Ha Long railway if it was actually linked with the existing national transit system. However, the plan to build a dual gauge 1 and 1.435 metre track is having difficulty in sourcing capital.