When commercial passenger services start in early 2015, a journey between the provincial capital Kunming and the Vietnamese border should take around 6 h 30 min. The electrified railway has been built in several phases through extremely challenging terrain; construction of the new alignment running south from a junction with at Yuxi began in 2009; the civil works budget was around 6·9bn yuan. Maximum speed is 130 km/h.

 

At Hekou, passengers can cross the river via a border point to reach the Vietnamese town of Lao Cai, from where DSVN operates trains over its metre gauge line to Hanoi.

 

China’s new line partly parallels the 1 000 mm gauge railway from Hekou to Kunming via Kaiyuan, over which passenger traffic ceased more than a decade ago following flood damage, save for a 35 km stub which provides an infrequent suburban service around Kunming. China retains aspirations to run through trains to Hanoi as part of its trans-ASEAN railway vision; one option would be for the Vietnamese line to be fitted with an additional running rail to permit dual gauge operation.