The Hà Nội Railway Transport Joint Stock Company will temporarily suspend a number of trains due to a lack of passengers.— Photo tienphong.vn

HÀ NỘI — The Hà Nội Railway Transport Joint Stock Company has temporarily suspended the operation of several routes due to a shortage of passengers as of Monday. 

The trains include the SE35/36 trains, travelling between Hà Nội and Vinh City and vice versa; and the SP1/2 trains, travelling from Hà Nội to Lào Cai City and vice versa.

The company will stop the daily operation of the YB3/4 trains, travelling from Hà Nội to Yên Bái and vice versa. The trains will only run at the weekend (from Hà Nội on Saturday and from Yên Bái on Sunday).

All passengers that bought tickets on these trains will be able to exchange them or get a refund, the company said.

The Sài Gòn Railway Transport Joint Stock Company also said it has temporarily halted the operation of some trains for the same reason as of Monday, the Tiền Phong (Vanguard) online newspaper reported.

Specifically, the SQN1/2 trains, running on the HCM City – Quy Nhơn route, as well as the SPT1/2 trains, running on the HCM City – Phan Thiết route, will only run on Friday, Saturday and Sunday every week. On other days, they will be suspended.

Đào Anh Tuấn, general director of the Sài Gòn Railway Transport Joint Stock Company, said the number of passengers had fallen by half compared to the same period last year due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

Thousands of train tickets were returned because travel firms cancelled tours, he said.

“The initial damage to our company has reached about VNĐ40 billion (US$1.7 million),” he added.

Phùng Thị Lý Hà, deputy general director of the Hà Nội Railway Transport Joint Stock Company said about 26,000 train tickets were returned since the outbreak of COVID-19.

It was predicted that passenger-transport revenue of the company would fall by half in both February and March compared to the same period last year, she said.

It was hard to talk about the resumption of the trains’ operation because it depended on the number of passengers, she said.—VNS