Though trams have long been a thing of the past in Hanoi, they remain a vivid memory for drivers and maintenance workers as a reminder of the city’s serene charm over two decades ago.

These former drivers and maintenance workers cannot forget the trams and the metal rails, which were a major source of pride and an unforgettable chunk of their lives.

One of them, 75-year-old Cao Van Tac, who lives in Hoang Mai District, worked as a tram driver for more than 30 years.

The old man still has a photographic memory of the trams’ components, details of most road sections and the exact amount of time needed to cover them.

Hanoi’s trams in their heyday

According to Tac, during the trams’ “golden age” in the 1970s and 1980s, the Hanoi Tram Firm had up to 20 cars which operated on several inner-city routes. Each car could carry 200 or 300 passengers.

“We tram drivers took great pride in our job, as we would wake everyone up and help locals, particularly low-income workers and peddlers, move around with ease and at cheap fares,” the old man said.

At 4.30 am sharp every morning, almost the entire city would wake up to the clanking of the tram bells, he said, adding that peddlers would wait for the trams at the stations to move between markets.

In 1960, Tac got a job as a tram conductor with the Hanoi Tram Firm. During that time, he also learned how to drive the vehicle.

Only a few months later, he replaced a retiring driver and drove a tram until 1990, when the last trams and rails were removed from the city streets.

Every day, rain or shine, he would get up at 3:00 am and go to the tram station to check on his car and get ready for a day’s work.

There were no telephones available back then, so it was a real challenge for tram drivers to avoid colliding with one another, Tac recalled.

“We had to back off to make way for the car going in the opposite direction, as we shared the same rails. It would take ten minutes or even up to half an hour sometimes. If we waited for a while but still didn’t see the other car, we would move on as the driver might have chosen another route,” he explained.

He would pick up and drop off students right in front of their schools every day even though there were no stations there to save them the trouble.

According to Vietnamese poet Vu Quan Phuong, whose childhood was closely connected with the trams, bicycles and trams were the two most common transport means used by Hanoians during those years, when the city was considerably less populated than it is today.

As civil servants preferred bicycles, trams were mostly used by peddlers and laborers thanks to their cheap fares, user-friendliness and the joys of mingling with peers.

Despite his meager salary, Tac enjoyed his drives, as he could overhear and partake in his passengers’ conversations.

Father and son on the tram

Nguyen Tien Da, 87, who lives in Bac Tu Liem District, and his 62-year-old son, Nguyen Tien Hung, bonded with the tram for most of their lives. 

Da worked as a maintenance worker for the Hanoi Tram Firm from 1965 to 1989, while his son drove a car until 1990.

Da’s job was to provide daily maintenance and repairs to the cars to ensure maximal safety for drivers and passengers.

Every morning, Da and his son would get up at 3:00 and go to work.

While his son prepared to drive his assigned car, Da provided controls and instructions to the drivers to make sure they followed the right order and avoided wasting time or the risk of collision.

In the late evening, Da and his team would meticulously examine each tram’s components, including those as small as cogwheels, bolts, and screws. 

“An overlooked loose cogwheel could cause the wheels to bump hard on the rails and start a fire the following day, which might put my own and my passengers’ lives at risk,” Hung, Da’s son, explained.

Hung and his father would sometimes battle through the night to tow derailed cars back to the firm.

The drivers and their cars had to stay put in case of a large-scale outage.

Tac shared that he was also impressed with the melancholic pieces played by troubadour performers of “xam” (northern Vietnamese traditional music) on the lines.

The performers, who were usually poor members of one family, typically sang and played the instruments on the trams and received change from passengers as a reward.

“The streets were quiet then, so the tram bells and ‘xam’ songs were not drowned out by the noise, and have been firmly imprinted on our minds ever since,” Tac added.

In the system’s final years, trams were outperformed by buses, which moved faster and did not have to wait for one another to pass.

Trams thus became less visible on the streets, while rail sections were gradually removed until they both disappeared altogether in 1990.

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