World experience in construction, technology transfer and operation of high-speed railway systems, lessons for Vietnam

Abstract

Railway is a field with many advantages, playing an important role in socio-economic development, but is currently a bottleneck in Vietnam's transportation industry, its market share is only around 1%. In the Railway Network Planning 2021 - 2030, vision to 2050, the government aims to complete the approval of investment policy by 2025 and start the construction of North-South highspeed rail (HSR) by 2030. Building a strategy to develop the HSR system in a methodical and consistent manner is very important, with specific targets and measures to match the country's economic development goals to 2030, with a vision to 2050. Regarding international experiences, in which HSR has been developed for nearly six decades, the construction and operation requires huge funds, causing negative impacts on transport policy of a whole country as well as its transport industry development in the long term. Therefore, it is necessary to have a thorough assessment about this topic for Vietnam. The main content of the article is to introduce the development process of HSR from case studies for policy-makers, planners, and managers, then to draw lessons in construction, technology transfer and operation.

Key words: Construction management; high-speed rail; policymaking; technology.