I tried Vietnam’s new metro… and found some surprising problems

It took Saigon 20 years to build its first train line and uh well

Thank you so much for watching! Hope you enjoyed it! I thought I'd have more second channel videos up by now, but I've been overwhelmed learning a new editing program (Davinci) so I'm a bit behind. This video was edited using FCPX except the SPON which was in Davinci.

Video Chapters:
0:00 Hook & Intro
0:38 Ben Thanh Station
2:00 Interesting design decisions on the platform...
2:23 First time riding the HCMC metro
3:13 Problems navigating the second station despite best efforts
4:08 The biggest glaring problem with this new metro
4:30 Inside the train carriage and the view outside
5:21 Interesting note about "influencers"
6:14 Does Saigon even need a metro?
7:31 Drawing comparisons to the London underground
8:40 Why even this one metro line doesn't feel finished
9:53 Drawing comparisons between Saigon's streets and America's
11:00 SPON
12:16 Conclusion
12:51 Outro

If you're new to my channel and videos, hi! I'm Evan Edinger, and I make weekly "comedy" videos every Sunday evening. As an American living in London I love noticing the funny differences between the cultures and one of my most popular video series is my British VS American one. I'm also known for making terrible puns so sorry in advance. Hope to see you around, and I'll see you next Sunday! :)

If you want to know HOW I make my videos including gear, lighting, all the tiddly bits that connect it all together, (with cheaper alternatives and kit I used to use), I've listed each item, what it's great at, and why I use it on the gear section of my website here:

Otherwise: here's a quick list of some of my kit without descriptions from the above link:

Camera: Sony A7siii

Main Lens: Sony 24mm f/1.4 G-Master

Secondary Lens: Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 G-Master

Main Light: Aputure 120d mkii

Shotgun Microphone: Sennheiser MKH-416

Really useful SSD: SanDisk Extreme Portable 2TB

[chaole]

Those ticket machines arent broken. Theyre actually just not in service yet. Right now, the only way to pay is through the app, credit card tap and go, and paper tickets.

Also, if you use the metro during the commuting hours, it is INSANELY crowded with riders standing shoulder to shoulder

[troevell]

You know you have a really good train system when all you get as complains are:
1. Dirty glasses.
2. Ticket machines that are not yet in service. Not even broken machines.

[girgias]

It looks very Japanese, which is not unsurprising considering it was built by Hitachi.
It is also unsurprising that the loading gauge of the trains is way wider than the UK ones, as I would imagine they built it to UIC GC standard (same as the chunnel).
The UK, as the first rail system, has a lot of track that was designed for *way* smaller loading gauges and capacity expectations.

[EndofDays]

Everyone has already mentioned it, but this exactly like a Japanese subway station. In fact, the doors on the platform in the underground section were like the Hibiya line and the overground station doors remind me of the Tsukuba Express. The Signage and exploded maps (and even the line map) were exactly like Tokyo Metro and even the train itself was very much something I'd see on Tozai line (in Tokyo),

They're in good hands!

[scottparker]

We used it last night, the city centre was shut down for the 50 year reunification celebrations so we were blocked from getting to the hotel, I was very impressed with it, the trains we saw were crowded, so people are using them. Didn’t realise it was so new, staff were super friendly. What a great new asset for the place.

[SgtLion]

1:04 "Why do they need a guy dedicated to scanning your ticket at a machine, surely anyone can do that?

3:29 "Oh, it's for people like Evan"

[tedioustotoro]

The aesthetic of the maps and stations in general makes me think that this metro was either based on or designed by a Japanese railway company.

[HCMCDrives]

Thanks for shining a light on our metro. Some small corrections. Metro opened in December 2024, not "last month"
The ticket machines have never been working, unfortunately - rumours of a little issue between Hitachi (the manufacturer) and FPT the localiser - They have a deadline of working by end of May.
There are a number of buses from the airport to the city centre, not sure if that was obvious from the video!

[domenicoRS]

For Saigon's first metro line, that looks great! Looking forward to seeing more of this in the future. Thanks as always Evan!

[lunamagnoona]

Surrounding the "useless" idea, this is actually an extremely useful line to build, probably the most useful line they could've built in the city. It connects three of the main neighbourhoods together (D1, D2, Ben Thanh) while still going out to some larger cities out to the east of Thu Duc

[sejtam]

The big difference between, eg Bangkok and Vietnam: in Bangkok, pedestrians crossing the road need to look out for the gaps, then dash and stop between lanes. In Vietnam, you cross by going at a steady pace, (while looking at the traffic) and they will (mostly) filter around you, You will be in danger if stopping or changing pace though

[theo]

The city of Saigon was smart enough to hire a Japanese company for their first metro line. It’s laid out and designed really well as opposed to Hanoi’s metro.

A single metro line isn’t exactly that useful but you have to start from somewhere and Saigon traffic isn’t getting less crowded.

[postboxcat]

Thanks for making this video!As someone who lived as a teacher in HCMC for a year back in 2018, it is amazing to see its first metro line in action! A huge step for this fantastic city.

Those little maps of stations are vital to me when I use the tube! I'm a wheelchair user and I often have to change lifts a couple of times to get to the right platform - those maps are how I work out my route.

[NorroTaku]

promising start!
I absolutely love the 3d Maps!
I would love to have that in my U-Bahn

[vanessawood]

As an ancient person from north of the M25 I am probably way out of your regular demographic but I wanted to let you know how much I’ve been enjoying your content. My algorithm also seems to love your work 😂. Please keep up the amazing work you do. Thank you 😊

[superqaxclub]

This metro line is not actually useless, because there are a lot of universities around Thu Duc city, and students prefer using public transports if they live far away

[richhumphries]

Any Mastercard will work for contactless, it doesn’t need to be a local one.

[Digitalhunny]

Evan, I don't know if you care? But, I just love when you share your travels with us on your channel. Thank you for helping some of us dream bigger to see more of our world. Hugs from Canada. 😊

[methethpropbut]

Always fun to see a metro system in its infancy, still raw and working through the teething issues, and being able to live through its expansion in real-time. The metro seems to be much needed owing to the somewhat horrible traffic in and around HCMC.

Fun to hear "mind the gap between the train and platform" too - if it works, it works!

On an unrelated note, QR code tickets are horrible and seem to be a regressive step from traditional methods like tokens, magstripe or RFID - too fiddly and often doesn't scan properly if the code is not completely flat.