A new way to buy tickets for Vietnamese trains

A Vietnamese travel agency has created a new website, Vietnam Train Tickets, to help foreigners buy train tickets between five cities: Hanoi, Sapa, Ho Chi Minh City, Hue, and Da Nang. You can get schedules for trains between those five cities as well as buy tickets for travel in all classes. You can also buy tickets for special cabins between Hanoi and Sapa, most of which are run by Sapa hotels.

Hanoi is expanding its Metro

On September 25, Hguyen Tan Dung, the Prime Minister of Vietnam, attended the groundbreaking ceremony for Hanoi's third subway line, and yesterday the project received an additional 73 million Euros in financing. A couple more subway lines are in the planning stages. The third line is projected to transport 200,000 people a day which are good numbers for a 12.5km line.

Vietnam's rail system is slowly improving. Should I visit and report back here?

Vietnam's Future Rail Plans

There is money available from foreign donors for upgrading rail within Vietnam as this would help the economies of eastern Asia as a whole as improve the natural environment. Currently, both Korea and Japan have offered their own development plans. Korea is offering less money than Japan, but that money is grant money. Also, the money can be used for upgrades to conventional speeds or to high speed. The Japanese have been offering a lot more money, but the money is all loans and the Vietnamese would be required to buy Japanese made equipment. There is also at least 2 billion in potential aid from other sources to build a rail connection to Cambodia, some coming from Australian business groups. China may also be a source of aid money.