Hanoi’s ambitious 5-line metro launch

Hanoi has launched the construction of five metro lines. The lines include the line that will replace the North-South Railway, a line connecting the airport to the old quarter and the world’s largest stadium, the world’s longest metro line(?), a circle line, and Tay Ho now gets access to the airport and the old quarter.

The historic groundbreaking day

Hanoi held a groundbreaking ceremony on the 22nd of June to launch the construction of five metro lines. The combined length of the lines spans over 300 km, with a total investment of approximately VND1.3 quadrillion (US$49.4 billion).

Many of the planned metro lines have been stuck in the planning phase for years, so the swiftness of this mass groundbreaking ceremony was unexpected.

The ground-breaking ceremony was announced a week before the occasion, and some of the lines don’t feature on the official master plan of the Hanoi Metro.

The new lines are being undertaken by the Vinhomes – VinSpeed consortium as EPC general contractor (design, procurement and construction package). Vingroup’s involvement helps explain the extensions of some lines and the addition of a new line.

Here is a breakdown of the five metro lines that were launched on June 22.

Observations on the new metro lines in Hanoi

I keep a directory of maps of the Hanoi Metro, but so far, no map shows all of the proposed lines. The Hanoi Metro website has a master plan map that was already outdated before the latest announcements.

The cover image is from an infographic published in Vietnam.vn. For this article, I will reference the map that was posted on VnExpress.

[Route map for the 5 urban railway lines that commenced construction on June 22nd. Graphic: Tam Thao]

Line 1 (the line that will replace the North-South Railway)

Line 1 has been in planning since the metro was first planned, but it got stuck at the starting line while Line 2A and Line 3 are already operational.

Line 1 is the most critical line for Hanoi, and not just because of its flagship number. The line will follow the route of the current North-South Railway, which will eventually stop operating in this corridor.

Vietnam is planning to build a high-speed railway that will replace the current North-South Railway. The Hanoi terminus will be at Ngoc Hoi, which is about 10 km south of the current Hanoi Station.

Line 1 will go from Ngoc Hoi and follow the same route as the current railway. The metro will go around the old quarter on the same route that the “Train Street” train takes, so this ridiculous tourist attraction will go when the railway closes down.

The high-speed railway is expected to start construction in 2027 and be completed by 2035. Ideally, Line 1 will be operational by the time the high-speed railway opens, so passengers can transfer by metro to central Hanoi.

The June 2026 groundbreaking announced that the lines will be ready by 2030, so that is four and a half years. For comparison, Line 2A took ten years to build the 13.1 km line (the slowest first metro line built in Asia).

To be fair, the high-speed railway will most likely face construction delays as well, so maybe the HSR and Line 1 will be ready at the same time.

Line 1 was originally planned to be 36 km, but it has now been revealed that the line will be extended north to Noi Bai International Airport and south to the Hung Vuong Stadium project.

Vingroup is building the new stadium, which is going to be the world’s largest stadium (135,000 capacity), so Line 1 will connect the stadium to the old quarter (where most tourists stay).

These extensions of Line 1 will now make the total length 81 km. It also means that there will be three metro lines serving Noi Bai International Airport (along with Line 2 and Line 6).

Line 2 (connecting the airport to the old quarter and the world’s largest stadium)

Construction of Line 2 broke ground in October 2025, so the inclusion of Line 2 on this list is confusing.

Line 2 is being built in stages, so it would have been more accurate to report it as Stage II (or whatever stage it is).

Line 2 embodies the struggles that Hanoi has faced in building the metro system. The line has been in planning for over a decade, which included a drawn-out debate on where to place the metro station in the old quarter.

This line will be most useful for visitors, as it will connect the airport to the old quarter. The line will also be extended to Hung Vuong Stadium, so there will now be two lines that run from the airport to the stadium via the old quarter.

Line 8 (the world’s longest metro line?)

Line 8 is the major East-West line of Hanoi. The old Wikipedia listing says the line is 37 km, but there have been no updates about this line for years. I was not expecting Line 8 to be in this lineup.

Line 8 will now be 91 km, which might be the longest metro line in the world. I have not found a list of the world’s longest lines, which is odd considering that Wikipedia loves such a listicle. The longest line in China (and possibly the world) is Line 6 of Chongqing Rail Transit at 85.6 km.

At 91 km, Line 8 would be better served as a commuter railway. Hanoi should be building commuter lines that connect Hanoi to the capitals of the neighbouring provinces.

A good example of a long metro/commuter line is the Great Train eXpress in Seoul. The GTX-A line is 81 km in length, and it has an operating speed of 180 km/h (a semi-high-speed railway).

Line 10 is now a circle line

Line 10 is a radical overhaul of the line that features on the official master plan map. The old Line 10 ran parallel to Line 2A, and like Line 2A, it didn’t continue through the city.

The new Line 10 is now a 43 km circle line, which is a line that every major metro system should have.

Line 10 isn’t on the Wiki page or the Hanoi Metro site, so we wait for more information on this line.

One of the stations on this line is Co Loa, which will be the Hanoi terminus for the Ha Noi–Quang Ninh high-speed railway, built by – you guessed it – Vinspeed.

[Co Loa HSR Station (image source).]

One thing I am curious to see is how the future metro map evolves. Having a circle line is a good way to use as a foundation for the map design. It is also worth noting that circle lines are not true circles.

For example, here is the schematic map of the Circle Line in Singapore.

And here is the geographic map of the Circle Line in Singapore.

[Note that the maps show dotted lines representing the unfinished section, which will open in July 2026.]

For map designers who are planning to make a Hanoi Metro map, this is a good example of being courageous enough to completely stray from geographic reality.

I have been so frustrated by the lack of good maps of the Hanoi Metro that I have considered designing one myself. However, I don’t feel like I know the city well enough to do it justice. Even though I have lost count of how many times I have been to Hanoi, I still manage to get lost in the old quarter.

On the other hand, I have spent years of my life wandering the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, and I have catalogued all of the news about the HCMC Metro. Thus, I felt confident in creating my own concept map of an expanded HCMC Metro.

Hanoi map makers, I am waiting for your maps!

Line 14 (Tay Ho now gets access to the airport and the old quarter)

Line 14 is a new proposal that is not on the official map, and it hasn’t been mentioned in the media before. The end of the line will be at Vinhomes Ocean Park, which makes sense considering that Vin is part of the construction consortium.

[An earlier advertisement for Vinhomes Ocean Park (which is not by the ocean).]

Vingroup also proposed a new line in Ho Chi Minh City, which is being built to serve the Vin project in Can Gio.

Line 14 fills in a glaring gap on the metro plan by running the line along West Lake (Tay Ho). Line 2 travels through the urban areas of West Lake West, but the area east of West Lake (the popular expat area) did not have a planned metro line. If you have ever caught a bus or taxi from the airport to the old town, Line 14 follows that same route after the river crossing.

Line 14 will connect to Line 2 near Thang Long Bridge, which means that the Tay Ho area will now have a connection to the airport with a single transfer.

Line 14 will provide another way to get to the historic Hoan Kiem area, so this is a good addition.

This new line also adds the possibility of a three-line interchange near the old quarter. If you look at the map, it appears that Line 1, Line 2, and Line 14 converge around the Long Bien Station area. That means that Hanoi would have a station like Ben Thanh in HCMC with three lines.

Ben Thanh in HCMC had the luxury of building on the site of a massive traffic circle, so there was enough land to dig a giant hole in the ground to build the station.

[Ben Thanh before the metro. Photo via nomadicnotes.com.]

The Long Bien Station area is surrounded by small roads, so this will be a more challenging build.

Long Bien Station will close down once the railway stops running, so they will be able to demolish the old station (which is too small anyway) and build a purpose-built interchange. They would also need to demolish more properties around the station.

Hanoi is currently going through an enormous rebuilding campaign that will disrupt everyday life for years to come, so expect more demolition work while Hanoi strives to build a nearly 1,000-km metro network for the 2026-2030 period.