The French colonial authority built Vietnam's first railway in 1881.

It was a link between Saigon and My

Tho, a neighboring village, and was primarily employed for cargo transportation. Major cities, including
Hanoi, Hue, and Da Nang, were connected as the railway network grew. Millions of passengers utilize the
Vietnamese railway system annually, a crucial component of the nation's infrastructure (Office, 2021). In
the UK, railroads have been essential to the growth and expansion of the country. Manchester and
Liverpool were connected by the first railway built in the UK in 1830. By enabling faster and more
effective movement of people and commodities around the nation, this new method of transportation
completely transformed travel and business in the UK. The British railway system is one of the world’s
most extensive, with 32,000 km of railroads (Britannica, 2019).

Rail systems in Vietnam and the UK are very different. Vietnam's railway network is still being developed,
unlike the UK, which is renowned for its well-established rail network. The degree of modernity in the
two nations' railway networks is one of the most significant contrasts. With high-speed trains and
complex signaling and communication systems, the UK's railway system is regarded as one of the most
advanced in the world (Britannica, 2019). For instance, in 2020-2021, £16.9 billion was funded for the
railway’s operational activities by the British government (Statista, 2023). Compared to 2019, this
investment increased by nearly £3 million and helped recover from the pandemic.

Figure 1: The total amount invested in railways infrastructure in Great Britain from 2004 – 2019

Source: Statista website (Statista, 2023)

In addition, the degree of government engagement is another distinction between the train networks of
the two nations. Private corporations operate the trains and maintain the infrastructure in the UK, where
railway operations are mostly privatized. On the other hand, the government primarily runs and finances
the railway network in Vietnam (Britannica, 2019). Despite these differences, both countries share some
features. One of them is allowing to move with large capacity. Carrying large capacity makes transporting
goods more convenient and reduces logistics costs (Nguyen Hoang Phuong, 2019). The term "rail freight
transport" describes the movement of freight by train; therefore, both Vietnam and the UK Bulk cargo,
intermodal containers, general or specialized load, and other items are among the many sorts of cargo
that can be transported on freight cars (Lowe, 2022). According to (Ngoc, 2022), it was recorded that the
volumes of freight transported in Vietnam (2020-2021) were 5.22 and 5.66 million metric tons in tons,
respectively. Looking at the total tonnage of goods transported by rail in the UK, 4.28 billion net tonne-
kilometers of freight were transported in 2021–2022. This was a 10.0% rise over the same quarter in the
previous year (2020-2021). Compared to the same quarter two years prior (2019–2020), it climbed by
0.7%. In 2020 compared to 2019, the United Kingdom's rail freight transit volume declined by 1.7 billion
tonne-kilometers (-9.9 percent). During the recorded time, this represents the lowest rail freight
transport volume. This partly showed that the UK’s railway system was negatively affected by Covid-19
(Vickerman, 2021).

Bibliography
Britannica (2019), Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed 1 May 2023.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/British-Railways

Lowe, O., 2022. Office of rail and road, accessed 2 May 2023.
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Ngoc, N. M., 2022. Statista website, accessed 2 May 2023

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