HANOI: Vietnam Railways (VNR) on Friday (June 26) put into service two dedicated commuter trains to carry more than 500 medical workers daily between Hanoi and the satellite campus of Bach Mai Hospital in the neighbouring province of Ninh Bình, expanding a model it first piloted for civil servants in the coastal city of Hai Phong last year.
The train pair, designated PL1 and PL2, consists of nine air-conditioned soft-seat carriages, with light meals and beverages served on board during the journey.
Train PL1 departs Hanoi Station at 6.15am and arrives at Phu Ly Station in Ninh Bình at 7.22am. The return service, PL2, leaves Phu Ly at 5.20pm and pulls into Hanoi at 6.30pm.
The authorities of Ninh Bình have arranged shuttle buses at Phu Ly Station to ferry passengers in both directions to the hospital campus, completing a door-to-door commute loop.
The PL1/PL2 service follows VNR's HP15/HP16 trains, launched in September 2025 to carry civil servants commuting across the expanded Hai Phong after the former Hai Phong merged with its neighbouring province of Hai Duong that year.
In nearly nine months of operation, the Hai Phong service has completed nearly 400 trips, carried more than 170,000 passengers and maintained a seat-occupancy rate above 90 per cent. — Vietnam News/ANN
