The first railway route linking Saigon and My Tho, put into use in 1885, marked a significant milestone for locals able to shorten their travel period from a full day on a boat to just two hours with the bulky steel-made steam locomotive.

Part 1: The first railway route in VietnamPart 2: Hanoi – Lang Son railway route costs blood, laborPart 3: Bright outlook conceived with trans-Vietnam routePart 4: Villages desolated for forced railway laborPart 5: Unforgettable trainsPart 6: A mournful dealPart 7: War-torn railways after liberation day

It was described as an unimaginable event in Vietnam, at a time when travelers only knew of horse drawn carriages and boats for transport. Locals then could see with their own eyes that steam locomotives could be for the welfare of people, they were not just steam engines installed on French war boats meant to destroy their coastal villages.

It was indisputable that the 70km-long Saigon – My Tho railway route was one of the most modern transport means in the world.

Tickets were so cheap that people of any walk of life, from teachers to wholesalers and vendors from the countryside could afford to get on the train. They brought domestic produce such as bananas, vegetables, and chickens from their garden to Saigon to sell.

Though luggage and cargo were kept in different wagons, a passenger carriage usually had the smell of fruit and poultry and cattle taken in small amounts by individuals.

Construction

A five-kilometer section of the route to connect Saigon and Cho Lon was opened in 1881, four years before the Saigon – My Tho train started operations, according to documents of French researcher Frederic Hulot.

Construction of the route was initially proposed in 1873 but the suggestion was refused before a group of French business people named Ogliastro, Blustein, Desbuissons and Cousin was granted a license of construction six years later.

All of the equipment, such as locomotives, carriages, tracks and spare parts, were transported from France to the Saigon Port. After two years of construction, the route linked two of the busiest and most crowded business centers in Vietnam, Saigon and Cho Lon.

Running on the 1,000mm width track, the trains left every 20 minutes during rush hour. When the route opened, the General Society of Trams of Cochin China managed the operations of all five steam locomotives coded SACM model 120-T, as well as 12 passenger carriages, three luggage wagons, and five cargo wagons. The locomotives were then named after place names in Vietnam such as Saigon, Cho Lon, Gia Dinh and Binh Tay.

The railway was so successful that the French Governor-General in Saigon, Le Myre de Vilers, admitted that “The Annamites [the name referring to Vietnamese people] have their favor for the trains. On the first days, some 2,000 passengers bought tickets a day. I consider it an exceptional amount. The victory of the transport company is undisputable.”

The first train to link Saigon and Cho Lon in 1881 (Archived photo)

The success encouraged the French colonial authorities in southern Vietnam to expand the construction of the route to lengthen it to My Tho, which is now in Tien Giang Province.

The biggest challenges for building the route were the consolidation of weak ground along the route, and the construction of two bridges crossing the Vam Co Dong and Vam Co Tay rivers.

The construction of the bridges, which were 550m and 133m long, respectively, was only completed a year after the route was launched. During the period before they were opened, train carriages were disassembled to be carried across the river by two ferries on permanent duty on the rivers.

The image of carriages being carried on ferries was very strange to locals, who had never seen such big ships.

Vo Minh Hai, an 86-year-old farmer in Ben Luc, recalled his father saying that his father and grandfather joined with locals to build the quays on the banks of the rivers for the train crossings.

The cost of construction of the Saigon – My Tho route was estimated at 175,000 franc per kilometer, according to Hulot, the historian. It was also the second railway route the French had ever built abroad, after the 13km route in Pondicherry – a commercial center of France in India – was completed in 1879.

Disappearance

However, the Saigon – Cho Lon and Saigon – My Tho routes disappeared in the 1950s after almost 70 years of existence. The Mekong Delta of Vietnam has never had another railway route since.

Late researcher Vuong Hong Sen described the Saigon – My Tho train as, “It spits out dense column of smoke and even fire. Sometimes, it was unable to cross the steep slope of the Tan An and Ben Luc bridges thanks to heavy loads, and it de-escalated before flexing its strength to go up.”

In the late 19th century, it was not an exaggeration to say this was an express train, with running at speed of 35 - 37.2 kph.

In the 1950s, the Saigon – My Tho route had 17 stations along the 70km route, with ten trains operated at each terminal.

The decline and disappearance of the route seemed to begin after 1953 due to the increasing amount of cars and the raiding of parties involved in the war that was ravaging Vietnam.

Such an ignominious end wasn’t always envisioned though. Documents from before 1845 show that the French colonial administration had had plans to extend the route down to Vietnam’s southern tip, Ca Mau.

Vietnamese scholar and essayist Vuong Hong Sen, who passed away in 1996, expressed his regret for the half-done plan, “the first French governor general in Saigon, Le Myre de Vilers, died 30 years before his son, the Saigon – My Tho route, was disbanded and driven to suicide.”

The Cho Lon railway station and a train ran the My Tho route (Archived photo)

Another train of Saigon - My Tho route (Archived photo)