Loss-making railways combined with the shortage of young workforce has initiated a huge railway construction project worth more than US$58 billion. However, a number of citizens and experts are expressing opposition to this scheme.

The market share of rail transport has officially fallen to 1%, causing much distress for its some 27,000 workers.

In the Northern region of Vietnam, several age-old train tracks are still being maintained due to social security reasons, though they hardly yield any income. Most of them pass through lonesome areas, where passengers and goods are few and far between. SGGP’s reporters took a ride on some of the trains and saw the peculiarity of it all.

Sai Gon Giai Phong (SGGP) reporters took the train across Vietnam to bring readers closer to the ups and downs of the rail industry. From nationally acclaimed state-of-the-art passenger cars that frequent the North-South railway, to the small-town tracks to-and-fro Saigon and Hanoi, the reporters came to understand their places in the midst of technology upsurge.