Hanoi's Railway Through the City: From Long Bien Bridge to Train Street

The railway the French opened in 1902 still runs through the middle of Hanoi. It crosses the Red River on the Long Bien Bridge, rides into the city on brick arches, and runs between houses to Hanoi Station. Part of that last stretch is what visitors call Train Street. In 2026 it is still a working line, which is the most useful thing to know before you go looking for it.

The bridge

Governor-General Paul Doumer broke ground for the bridge on 13 September 1898, and it was inaugurated on 28 February 1902 and named after him, by the account of Vietnam's national tourism administration. It is nearly two kilometers long, with a single railway track in the middle and paths for vehicles and people on either side. Its spans destroyed in the war were replaced with shorter ones.

It had a hard 2026. A fractured steel plate halted trains between Hanoi and Gia Lam stations from 2 February; road traffic was suspended for repairs from 28 March, and the bridge reopened on 28 May with its walkways repaired and handrails replaced. In February the Ministry of Construction and the city also agreed to reduce passenger trains and stop freight over the bridge and through the city stretch. Do not plan a visit around seeing a train.

The arches

From the bridge the line comes into the Old Quarter on a masonry viaduct, its vaults numbered from 1 to 132. Dozens of families lived in them in the late 1960s and early 1970s; later they held tea stalls and workshops. The last of them, opposite Hang Ma Street, was walled up in 1982, and most of the openings are filled in today.

Where the viaduct runs along Phung Hung Street it follows an older line. The Kien Truc architecture journal describes the street's straight section as the trace of the brick wall and moat on the east side of the old citadel, with houses on one side only, facing the stone railway bridge the French built after they finished demolishing the citadel. The wall came down; the trains took its line.

Train Street

South of the arches, between the Tran Phu and Dien Bien Phu level crossings, houses and cafes stand at the edge of the track. It is railway land, not a public street. The dated record shows how the city has handled it:

• October 2019: commercial activity on the stretch was ordered to stop.
• September 2022: barriers went up and the cafes were closed again.
• 2023 and March 2025: the city's tourism department told travel firms not to organize tours there.
• June 2025: police asked hundreds of foreign tourists and locals to leave, for their safety.
• February 2026: the ministry and the city agreed to reduce passenger trains and suspend freight through the stretch.
• August 2026: cafes were open, trains still passed, and a traffic police officer walked the line to keep people back from the rails.

So it is neither simply closed nor simply open. The plain rule is to stay off the rails and behind the barriers, and to look from the public level crossings, where the street meets the line. Trains still run, on a timetable that changes, so nobody can promise you one.

The station of 1902

At Le Duan the line curves into Hanoi Station, opened by the French in 1902 as Ga Hang Co, the same year as the bridge. Its central part was destroyed by US aircraft in the air campaign at the end of 1972, during the Vietnam War, which Vietnam calls the American War, and it was rebuilt and renamed Ga Ha Noi after 1975. North-south trains use the main building on Le Duan; a second building stands behind it on Tran Quy Cap. An underground metro station for Line 3 is being built beneath it, with opening targeted for 2027.

Walking the line

Two of our walks follow this railway. Old Quarter: The Guild Streets, Lake to Long Bien ends at the foot of the Long Bien Bridge. Temple of Literature and Train Street: Rails to the Academy starts under the Phung Hung arches, stops at Train Street's two public crossings and at the station, and then steps off the line to the Temple of Literature. Both keep to public sidewalks, and both let you stop at the arches or the crossings for as long as you want.