Due to the progress those three have no chance to survive ...
Due to the progress those three have no chance to survive ...
Please read the article about railways in Vietnam here.
The metre gauge line Kunming – Hanoi is amongst the most spectacular railway lines of the world. Many of the most scenic sections of the line are in remote areas with no road access at all, so you need to walk quite a way to get to the best spots. However, the locations are definitely worth the extra effort to reach them.
Unfortunately, the best parts of the line are in China. After the line passes the border bridge to Vietnam the railway heads southbound along the beautiful Red River, beautiful, but no longer spectacular. However, there are still plenty of good opportunities to take shots on the Vietnamese section as well. Especially close to the border where the valley is still surrounded by beautiful mountains.
The best part of the line is in China, but why “unfortunately”? Well, south of Kunming it seems the Chinese have a problem with railway photographers. Even in the smallest station the local village policeman seems to think it necessary to first convince the station master that taking pictures of trains is a security risk which must be banned and then kick you off the station area. Most of the railwaymen are friendly and helpful (I said most, not all), but I would recommend not spending much time around stations, but instead walking up the line into the gorges. At some stations railway officials told us that people who do not work for the railways are not permitted to enter station areas since the passenger service was ceased. In general you always have the feeling that you’re doing something that’s not appreciated. There is a latent feeling that you’re not welcome. At least if you meet most officials, you experience the unfriendly way of modern Chinese behaviour. “We won’t give you any information about trains - what are you doing here - who sent you - you’re not entitled to be in this place ...”
Our bus driver was another annoying detail of the tour. Any tiny little detour caused a huge discussion, typical Chinese excuses (I could write a whole book about the most stupidest Chinese excuses), huge additional money requirements although the bus was already much more expensive than usual. We saved 60 km one day, but he managed to find a way to charge additional kilometres. He charged the sort of price you would expect in western Europe. There is an endless list of reasons why you should not go to China. It can be disgusting in many aspects, the floors of many restaurants is covered with rubbish, train toilets are full of shit, the rivers are just huge waste dumps and on and on. If it wasn’t for the very scenic railways and the steam, China would never see me again!
May we take a picture of the bridge – the border bridge? Yes, why not? Please not from the border road bridge, but from the Vietnamese side it’s no problem at all. And with the long lens? Of course, why do you ask? The railway station (it’s a border station)? Oh stop, we need to talk to the station master. Why? Because ... he’s arranged a cup of tea for us and wants to answer our questions. After the meeting he said, come on the top of the roof of the office building, you have a good overview over the border station from there. The depot? Oh yes, but please take care of moving locomotives. When are the freight trains running? The first from China will arrive at 9.15 am (it passed the border bridge 9.12 actually). Wherever we went, we were welcomed. At the smallest line post we got information about the next freight trains. They even called the next station to find out the next movement. Taking pictures of bridges – no problem at all. A country which was bombed into ground first by the U.S. Air Force and then had a military attack by China in 1979 (and won both times) has obviously no problem with railway photographers. We saw more tourists in Hanoi than anywhere in China before. Vietnam has got it right!
Back to China, even if it’s hard. In Kunming there’s a railway museum in the metre gauge passenger station. Telephone 0871-61 38 610, open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 to 16 hrs. The museum shows the history of the Railway from Kunming to Hanoi. The Kunming railway museum is much better than the museum in Beijing and well worth a visit. They even had a guide who told us something about the railway. Try this in Beijing. Hopeless. There is a good survey about the history, models, pictures, maps, a relief of the railway, a model of the most famous bridge and much more. In the old depot you’ll find the highlights:
All depots along the line, except Kaiyuan, have been closed, including the depot in Kunming. All services and repairs will be done in Kaiyuan. Of course, this depot is off limits, all strategically important and needing to be protected from dangerous cameras. It doesn’t matter that the metre gauge line will probably disappear in a couple of years.
On the northern part of the line between Yiliang and Xiaolongtan you can expect about one train per hour. Two open cast mines are situated in Xiaolongtan. Both of them use prisoners for workers, so photography is not advisable here. These two mines create a lot of traffic between Xiaolongtan and the power plants in Kaiyuan. Sometimes two trains follow each other within 20 minutes, sometimes it takes 45 minutes. South of Kaiyuan on the main line to Hekou there is about one train every hour or two hours. The branch line to Mengzi and Shiping only has one pair of trains per day. Mengzi is usually served around noon while the line to Shiping sees a train in the morning which returns in the afternoon.
In 2003 heavy rainfalls caused landslides and wash-outs, especially on the section Kaiyuan – Hekou. The new management of the line took this as a reason to end the passenger service. Recently they even finished the remaining suburb passenger service in Kunming. The coaches have been sold, it was said, to Myanmar. The freight train to Shiping carried an emergency passenger coach (a former box car), but this was not a public service. Whether this mixed train still exists is not sure. We have seen railway employees who have travelled between Xiaolongtan and Kaiyuan in an open freight wagon. The withdrawal of all passenger trains has been made without any thought for the local population along the railway line. The roads in this region are in a very poor state, and many villages even don’t have a poor road, they have no connection to the outside world now except paths. I guess the main reason was that passenger trains used to disturbed the dense freight traffic. Passengers must use the bus on the new expressways for long distances but, in general, the villages are back in the 19th century before the railway was built.
The potential for tourist trains was realised by the former manager of the line. We have to thank him for establishing the museum in Kunming. In addition he was the man who introduced the international passenger train from Kunming to Hanoi in 1997. When the new manager took over, there was no support for the passenger service any more. The new target for the management is to replace the metre gauge line with a standard gauge line which is under construction and currently ploughing through the mountains of Yunnan. Meanwhile the stations are free of disturbing passengers, and visitors are thrown off the platforms. The freight traffic doesn’t face any disturbance any more. The management shows no interest in a charter train at all. Of course, on some sections it’s quite difficult to add another train, but there are sections of the line where you could arrange something without disturbing other trains. However, two years of trying to get the KD55 back on the track have failed. We got these three options to run a charter train from the person in charge:
1) You bring a suitcase (a big one, please) full of money
2) You should be a relative of the general manager
3) You provide free tours to amusement centres, flights and shopping tours for the management and become a friend (or what Chinese take for friendship) of the people in charge.
Finally, I threw the project of chartering a train on the metre gauge line into the dustbin.
It’s likely that the metre gauge railway will be closed and abandoned in a couple of years. At the moment they’re “only” working on the section Kunming – Mengzi – Kaiyuan and on the line along the Red River towards Hekou. However, it’s very unlikely that they’ll stop regauging the system once they reached Hekou and Kaiyuan. The very busy section to Xiaolongtan is obviously the next candidate for regauging. The section Kunming – Yiliang has a parallel standard gauge line already (Shilin and further to the east) and it is easy to build a short branch to Yiliang. The line between Yiliang and Xiaolongtan can be closed without any great impact. The gorges between these cities would make a standard gauge line very expensive, and the transport requirements are sparse. The only road crossing the line between these two cities is the road to Panxi. Once the standard gauge between Kunming and Kaiyuan is finished the traffic on this section will be very light and it’s doubtful that they’ll continue to keep the metre gauge alive. The section between Kaiyuan and Shiping as well as Mengzi will be covered by the standard gauge line. Only one pair of trains a day is not a thing the state railway will even think about. That the complete replacement of the metre gauge line is the target, can also be proven by the stopping of the construction of the new diesel locos of class DF21 after delivering just 20 units. The class DFH21, one of the oldest diesel locomotives on the state railway still handles most of the traffic.
Nobody we asked could give a date or even a year when the new standard gauge line will open. The construction sites we saw indicate that it could be in about two years. If you want to see this line you shouldn’t wait too long.
In Vietnam we have been assured that there are no plans for regauging the line. They just have no money for it. It looks like Vietnam never got along with standard gauge, as most rail traffic in Vietnam is operated on metre gauge. Metre gauge is the standard gauge of south east Asia, anyway. It wouldn’t be as expensive as it is in China to re-gauge the line between Lao Cai and Hanoi because the topography is much easier. Of course they would need to replace most of the bridges, but the rest seems to be easy.
All freight from China which has a destination south of Hanoi gets unloaded from the Chinese wagons to Vietnamese freight cars. Chinese freight wagons are only allowed to Hanoi and no further. It will put more pressure on Vietnam to re-gauge the section Lao Cai – Hanoi once China closes all metre gauge lines. Maybe China will provide money to replace the metre gauge line to Hanoi with a standard gauge one. It’s likely that China will try to keep the unloading process away from the small border cities of Lao Cai and Hekou. Most of the freights from China go through to Hanoi.
Sooner or later Vietnam Railways must think about the future of their railway lines through Hanoi. The current situation is very unsatisfactory. The road traffic prevents the railway from running trains through the city during daylight (with a very few exceptions). It’s quite likely that the road traffic lobby will make a “break through” and force the railway to build a viaduct through the city. Asia is very familiar with ugly traffic solutions in big cities, although in Vietnam (in hard contrast to China) it seems the people have an eye for aesthetics and beautiful buildings. It’s hard to believe that a viaduct solution will tame the sometimes chaotic road traffic, but for sure it will be a big advantage for the railway operation. Currently only one train is permitted to run during daylight hours through the streets of Hanoi.
Such a viaduct will be probably built to fulfil the requirements of standard gauge. The second connection from China to Hanoi is already built in standard gauge. The northern part of Vietnam could become a standard gauge area in a couple of years. The metre gauge line from Kunming to Hanoi seems to be set to become completely history, although in Vietnam it will remain metre gauge for several years. The growing economy on both sides of the border and the growing trade between these two countries will require an advanced infrastructure, and a standard gauge line could be the step into the future.
The line along the Red River has dense traffic. The overnight passenger trains are mostly used by tourists who visit the minorities in the mountains in the north of Vietnam. The daylight passenger is mostly used by local residents. The sleeper coaches in the overnight trains are comfortable and worth the price of just 26 US-Dollars. Almost all passenger trains are in the hands of the Czech D12E class from the depot in Hanoi.
Freight trains are mainly hauled by the class D10H (which is in fact a Chinese DFH21 as used on the Kunming – Hekou section as well). Usual combinations are one D10H an a short freight train or one D10H plus one D5H on a longer freight train or two D10H for heavy trains. Two D10H must have a few freight cars between the locomotives because of the light bridges along the line.
The timetable of the line fits the requirements of the road traffic in Hanoi, between 7 in the morning and 6 in the afternoon there is almost no movement through Hanoi.
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The times of SP5/6 are only known correctly for Lao Cai. According to railway people in Hanoi the LC3/4 doesn’t run. It’s not clear how the LC5 (9) and LC6 (8) fit into the numbering system.
In China we found the following locomotives in service:
In Vietnam we saw these locomotives in service:
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