VietNamNet Bridge - Shuji Eghuchi, Director of the International Cooperation Department under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Government of Japan, said that Japanese experts would join forces with Vietnamese ones this autumn to investigate the field for the implementation of the high-speed train project in Vietnam.
 | | Shuji Eghuchi, Director of the International Cooperation Department under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Government of Japan | Mr Eghuchi had a talk with Tuoi tre’s reporter on the high-speed train project in Vietnam. The following is a brief of the conversation.
Japan once got involved in the building of the high-speed train in Taiwan. The BOT (build-operate-transfer) project was drawn up in the early 1990s, but Taiwanese people only began travelling on the high-speed train in early 2007, or 15 years after the project was kicked off. When do you think Vietnamese people will travel on Shinkansen?
It depends on the Vietnamese side. Right in the spring of this year, our leading experts arrived in Vietnam for the preparation for the project. If everything goes as planned, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will join forces with Vietnamese side to make the field investigation, which will help draw up the general map on the transport system development in Vietnam.
 | | Shinkansen train | We will have detailed parameters about the demand and capacity of the road, water and air transport systems, of the railway and high-speed railway. The most economic stretches of railway will be prioritised. In Japan, the high-speed train first appeared in 1964, but the railway linking directly to the centre of Tokyo was only be completed in 1991, because this was the most difficult stretch of railway, as it went through many residential quarters; the conditions for building were not favourable and the construction expenses were too high.
How much do you think Vietnam will have to pay for the development of the train?
As the partner of the project at the national scale, we hope that the National Assembly of Vietnam will soon enact the railway law, a legal basis for the running of the high-speed train in Vietnam. With such a law, investors will be able to choose owners, the managers and mechanism for operation. By that time, we will have an answer as far as costs.
What are the advantages of the Shinkansen train?
If comparing Shinkansen with European products, Shinkansen belongs to the same generation in terms of speed (300 km/h).
A test conducted recently with the latest generation N700 of Shinkansen, which was put into operation on July 1, showed that Shinkansen can reach the top speed of 400km/h. If considering the expenses and the environmentally-friendly level, Shinkansen is more economical and friendlier, while it has small engines that do not make noise.
N700 would be suitable for a stretch of railway less than 1,000 km, like HCM City-Nha Trang-Da Nang. The high-speed train would have many advantages over an airplane: lower fare (the railfare is just equal to 2/3 of airfare), low tardiness (6 seconds), and absolute safety (no accident so far with Shinkansen).
(Source: Tuoi tre, Viet Nam Net) | 
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