HCMC Metro

The Ho Chi Minh City Metro (HCMC Metro; Vietnamese: Đường sắt đô thị Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh) is a rapid transit system in Ho Chi Minh City, the most populous city in Vietnam.

The system currently consists of one operational line, Line 1, which opened on 22 December 2024 from Bến Thành Market to New Eastern Bus Terminus. Additional lines are currently under construction or being planned. Line 1 is 19.7 km (12.2 mi) long with three underground stations (Bến Thành, Ho Chi Minh City Opera House, and Ba Son) and eleven elevated stations. The three stations above are Vietnam's first underground metro stations. Trains are designed to travel at up to 110 km/h (68 mph) on the elevated sections and up to 80 km/h (50 mph) underground.

Further lines are under construction or planned, for a total length of 510 km (316.9 mi) (not including the length of LRT Line 11 and Line 12 for Cần Giờ)

As part of its inauguration, nine trains will initially run from 05:00 to 22:00 (UTC+07:00), with peak hour and off-peak frequencies of eight and twelve minutes, respectively. Based on the decision of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council, the metro will remain free for the first 30 days of operation. Feeder bus lines connecting to Metro Line 1 will be free of charge from 1 January 2025, until the end of the metro's fare-free policy. In practice, however, the free bus fare policy was implemented earlier, starting on 22 December 2024, coinciding with the official operation of the metro line.

The network was first proposed in 2001 as part of a comprehensive public transport network plan including Ho Chi Minh City and neighbouring provinces, with the aim of avoiding the severe traffic congestion problems that have affected other Asian cities (such as Hanoi).

According to the original master plan submitted in February 2001, the metro system would comprise six lines. The plan was originally expected to cost US$1.5 billion over 10 years, as part of a US$3.35 billion program to build a rail network serving Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding provinces.

The plan was revised in 2007 and proposed no less than six urban rail lines. The city’s transport development master plan to 2020 envisages developing three monorail or light rail lines with a total length of 37 kilometres (23 mi) and six underground metro routes with a total length of 107 kilometres (66 mi). Bến Thành Market in District 1, already a major hub for bus traffic, will become a major hub connecting several lines.^{[citation needed]}

The latest plans for Ho Chi Minh City Metro, a revised version of the earlier proposal in 2007, was approved on 8 April 2013. The network's first line, connecting Bến Thành Market and Suối Tiên Park in Thủ Đức, was originally scheduled for completion in 2014. A groundbreaking ceremony for Line 1 was held on 21 February 2008. Due to funding issues, however, construction only began in 2012, pushing the project completion date to 2018. Line 1 is mainly funded through official development assistance provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), with the remainder being financed by the city's government budget. Nippon Koei (now is ID&E Holdings) was the main designer and consultant for the line. The elevated sections were built by a joint venture between Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo and Vietnamese state-owned contractor Cienco 6. The underground section is being built by a joint venture between two other Japanese companies, Shimizu and Maeda.