The Viet Nam Railway Corporation held a launching ceremony for the high-quality train SE21/22 (Ho Chi Minh City - Da Nang). The SE21/22 train is a new product with many amenities and aesthetics to be put into operation, serving the travel needs of people during the summer peak of 2024 and is expected to become a "hot" tourism product for visitors.
Passengers arrive at the Da Nang railway station. Photo: Thanh Lan
Mr. Thai Van Truyen, the General Director of Saigon Railway Transport Joint Stock Company, said that after being affected by COVID-19, since the beginning of 2022, passenger travel demand by rail has gradually recovered. The company organised a tour, research, and survey to evaluate the quality of the unit's brand trains. From there, it decided to choose a pair of trains SE22/21 on the Ho Chi Minh City - Da Nang route and renovated it into high-quality transport product with a new look.
To put SE22/21 into operation, the company has selected 26 new passenger carriages whose interior and exterior are designed with many advantages such as expanding the restroom space, replacing equipment in the restroom and washing compartment with new ones, newly painting carriage walls according to the new design, refurbishing beds, installing composite walls and ceilings.
The interiors are completely refurbished and are now equipped with Wi-Fi and air-conditioning. Each bed in the sleeper cars comes with a reading light, charging port, new mattresses, blankets, sheets, pillows, and curtains.
Additionally, there is a carriage with 180-degree rotating seats, allowing passengers to adjust their seating direction as needed, located in the seating area.
In particular, food service areas are designed, re-installed and placed in the middle of the train for passengers’ convenience to minimize travel time for passengers at both ends.
There is a carriage with only two beds designed for passengers seeking private space.
This is one of the first two trains (namely the Hue - Da Nang train ‘Central Heritage Connection Journey’ and SE21/22) to have wifi installed on the trains to serve passengers for free.
On this occasion, the railway industry also invested in renovating, embellishing and putting into operation VIP waiting rooms to serve train passengers at the Saigon station and Da Nang station.
A seating compartment on the SE22 and SE21 trains.
Ms. Tran Thi Quyen from Lien Chieu District, Da Nang said that as one of the first passengers on the train, she was satisfied with the service style, as well as the equipment on the train.
Sharing the same opinion, Mr. Pham Bao Khanh, another train passenger, said that the highlight of the train is that the carriages are painted in white, gray and blue tones with the main image of a flamingo on the Dong Son bronze drum - a symbol associated with the Vietnamese culture.
Mr. Hoang Gia Khanh, the General Director of the Viet Nam Railway Corporation said that the launch of the SE21/SE22 train is one of the new comers in the chain of products and services that the railway industry is providing in a bid to bring passengers interesting experiences on Viet Nam Railways' journeys, contributing to the tourism, socio-economic and cultural development.
Accordingly, the carriages used on train SE21/22 are the best selected by the Viet Nam Railways Corporation to renovate in order to increase utility and bring high aesthetic effects.
It is known that the SE21/SE22 trains will run daily on the Ho Chi Minh City - Da Nang route and vice versa.
Train SE22 departs at the Saigon station at 11:00 a.m. and arrives at Da Nang station at 6:05 a.m. the next day while train SE21 departs from the Da Nang station at 8:15 a.m. and arrives at Saigon station at 4:15 a.m. the next day.
The ticket price for the whole journey is about VND 500,000 for seats and about VND 900,000 for beds and the price depends on time and type of seat.