Nguyen Dinh Vinh may resort to air travel for his mother’s summer trip back to her hometown in Nam Dinh after discovering that train fare for the journey has skyrocketed.
Vinh was shocked to read the updated passenger fare table at the Saigon Railway Station, which says a single ticket to travel from Ho Chi Minh City to the northern province now costs more than VND1.8 million (US$85).
“The fare used to be only around VND1.6 million,” he lamented.
Vinh said he would switch to buying an air ticket for his mother if she agrees to travel by air.
“It’s a waste of time and money to travel by train,” he said.
It takes 29 hours to travel between HCMC and Hanoi by train, and only two hours by airplane.
Many other passengers experienced the same shock when they sought to buy railway tickets back to home during the summer, a season of high demand for train travel just second to the Lunar New Year.
Vietnam Railways, the state-owned operator of the railway system in Vietnam, has announced train fare increases applicable between May 16 and September 3, and the Saigon Railways Station has also updated its ticket table.
Fare increases, applied for almost all of the available trips, range from a few dozens of thousands of dong to more than VND200,000.
The highest fare belongs to the HCMC – Hanoi route, which fetches VND1.93 million per ticket, up VND205,000 from the old rate.
“I was told that ticket from HCMC to Tuy Hoa now costs VND761,000, while a month ago, it was only VND661,000,” a reader complained to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
Many students of colleges and universities in HCMC also expressed their disapproval of the new train fares.
A large number of students in the southern hub are from other localities, who usually return to their hometowns during the Lunar New Year and summer breaks.
Thuong, a sophomore at the HCMC University of Industry, complained that the new fares are applied for too long a time, causing even more difficulties for passengers.
“With the previous fare increases, passengers could delay their trips until fares dropped,” she said.
“But this time the fares remain high for as long as nearly four months, and passengers have no choice unless they give up on the trip to home.”
Many passengers have in fact switched to air travel after learning of the unreasonably high train fares.
“Students like me can enjoy a 10 percent discount, but even so, the ticket remains too expensive,” Hoang Xuan Phuong, a student hailing from the central province of Nghe An, told Tuoi Tre on Friday.
“I’ll travel home via a low-cost airline.”
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Đăng ký: VietNam News