In the railway station planning, the functional sector proposes to invest in expanding Song Than station, one of the two key stations in Binh Duong province (Song Than station and Di An station, Di An town, Binh Duong province) to exploit the international multimodal transport route.
Among the two above mentioned key stations, Di An station is the passenger station and Song Than station is the freight station. Song Than station is the largest freight station in the South and the whole country, with the function of operating the international multimodal transport.
Song Than station started transporting goods straight to China from the end of September 2023. In early 2024, Song Than station launched its first shipment with 21 cars carrying 200 tons of agricultural products to China.
The advantage of the multimodal train is that the procedure is very fast. The Automated Customs and Cargo Clearance System (VNACCS-VSIS) provides green passage (no detailed document checking, no physical cargo checking, and automatic customs clearance).
Recently, in the meeting of the leaders of the Ministry of Transportation with the leaders of Binh Duong province, both sides agreed to invest in expanding and upgrading An Binh station (Song Than station has two cargo gathering yards, Song Than and An Binh) as a mixed passenger and freight key station for the new double gauge 1,435 mm rail line and the existing North-South 1,000 mm rail line.
Currently, Song Than station has two yards, one is an 87,000 m2 yard inside the station and one is a 100,000 m2 yard outside the station (the total management area of Song Than station is about 200,000 m2).
Prior to that, Binh Duong province proposed to Vietnam Railway Administration, Ministry of Transportation to relocate and merge Di An station, the passenger station, to An Binh station because Di An station is small, with few passengers boarding and getting off, and the traffic around the station is dense, affecting overall traffic and inefficient exploitation of the station.
According to the plan, after renovation and upgrading, Song Than station will achieve an operational capacity of over 2.5 million tons per year.
In the period from 2025 to 2030, after completing the projects, Song Than station’s capacity will reach 3.5 million tons per year. Song Than will become the largest freight station in the Vietnamese railway system.
To be more synchronized and to enhance its capacity to serve international multimodal operations, Vietnam Railways Corporation proposed the Ministry of Transportation to continue developing the phase 2 investment project, with an estimated investment of about 180 billion VND, public investment medium-term capital. Accordingly, it will build additional renovation and supplementary yards, build synchronized items; build new operation, customs, border guard, and police facilities. For An Binh yard, upgrade and renovate the marshalling and new marshalling lines; build new cold storage warehouse…
Regarding the external warehousing area for international multimodal operations, Vietnam Railways Corporation requested Binh Duong province to consider granting land for functional warehouse. At the same time, it suggested Binh Duong Customs Department to open a location for checking, monitoring, and customs clearance of goods at the Song Than international multimodal station.
