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| An electric bus in Hanoi, which carries tourists around the Old Quarter and the West Lake. Photo: Ngoc Thang |
The buses will be running
every half an hour through major destinations in District 1 including Ben Thanh
Market, the Opera House, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Saigon Central Post
Office, the Reunification Palace, the Saigon Zoo, the War Remnants Museum, the
Ho Chi Minh Campaign Museum, and the Vietnam History Museum.
Each tram can carry eight
people and runs at below 40 kilometers per hour, according to the transport
department’s proposal which has been submitted to the city hall for approval.
The route is planned to
start from the September 23rd Park outside Ben Thanh, going through Nguyen
Trai, Le Lai, to Ben Thanh Bus Terminal and continue to Le Loi, Hai Ba Trung,
Le Duan, Nguyen Binh Khiem, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, Mac Dinh Chi, back to Le
Duan, Pasteur, Vo Van Tan, Le Quy Don, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, Nam Ky Khoi Nghia,
Le Thanh Ton, Phan Chu Trinh, Tran Hung Dao, Pham Ngu Lao, to the park.
The buses will operate from
8 am until 5:30 pm on a daily basis.
They can start somewhere
along the route instead of at the park to the need of customers.
Each route charges each
customer VND20,000 (less than one US dollar).
But a group of customers can
book a bus for up to three hours for VND600,000 ($28).
The transport department
said that once the electric bus route is commissioned, the city will have to
change the course of the public bus route No.35 which is currently running
through almost the same streets.
A source from the department
said the public bus route has failed to pull in the clientele as expected.
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| The planned route of the electric bus tour through Ho Chi Minh City's District 1, starting with the green line. Photo credit: HCMC Department of Transport |
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