Hanoi (VNA) - Rail tracks located in the innercity have caused problems for Hanoi’s traffic, however, this will be addressedin the future when city planning is completed.

Transport Deputy Minister Nguyen Ngoc Dong made this commentreferring to the proposal to move Hanoi railway station out of the inner city.

“Traffic congestion (caused by the railways) is indeed takingplace, at present. In the future, the rail tracks will not cause traffic jams.The Cat Linh-Ha Dong rail route will run on an elevated rail track or the Nhon-Hanoirail route will be underground. We will address the problem,” he said,indicating he was not in favour of the proposal.

He said the Hanoi transport development, including Hanoi railwayplanning, has been scheduled.

According to the Vietnam Railway Corporation, there are 5,564crossings between rail tracks and roads nationwide. Hanoi has the highestnumber of crossings. There are also a large number of national rail tracksrunning parallel with Hanoi’s main roads, such as Le Duan and Giai Phong, andcrossings between rail tracks and the city’s main transport routes, includingdensely-populated intersections such as Kham Thien, Dai Co Viet-Dao Duy Anh, TruongChinh and Linh Dam peninsula.

As a result, trains are banned from entering and moving out of theinner city during the rush hour, which is when there are maximum passengers.This has limited profits of the railway sector.

Vu Anh Minh, chairman of the Vietnam RailwaysCorporation, said railways worldwide have two advantages - safety andlocation in the inner city to meet travel demand.

He said major cities such as Paris, Tokyo, and Frankfurt havetheir national railways located in the city centre, which is connected withinner cities’ railways.

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He said if the railways were not located in the city centre,small-sized vehicles carrying passengers to the suburbs would increase.

“Hundreds ofother vehicles replacing a train carrying 700 to 1,000 passengers still putpressure on the inner city’s traffic,” he said.

In early August,the Hanoi Police Department proposed to move the Hanoi Railway Station and allinter-provincial rail tracks to the suburbs to avoid traffic congestion andfatal accidents in the inner city.

Figures from the city’s Traffic Safety Steering Committee showthat in the first seven months of this year, as many as 14 traffic accidentsoccurred on railroads, leaving 13 dead and many injured.

Most of the accidents occurred at intersection points or crossingsbetween rail tracks and streets as drivers and pedestrians failed to observe orobey railway signals.

The Ministry of Transport is also collecting opinions on itswebsite to draft criteria to determine “black spots” of railway accidents.

The criteria proposed to determine potential spots of railwayaccidents are quality of railways and safety railway barriers, as well as thenumber of traffic accidents in a year.-VNA