The two trains with three cars each will be disembarked and transferred to the Long Binh Depot in Thu Duc City one after another on Wednesday and Friday.

With their arrivals, HCMC’s metro line No.1 now has seven trains, all built in Japan.

The other five were delivered between last October and June this year.

Each train is 21 meters long, four meters wide, three meters high and weighs 37 tons.

The 19.7-km metro route No.1 from Ben Thanh Market in District 1 to Suoi Tien theme park in Thu Duc City will have 17 Japanese-made trains in total.

Each train will have a capacity of 930 passengers and travel at up to 110 kph above ground and 80 kph underground.

According to the project’s investor HCMC Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR), along with the arrivals of the two new trains, Japanese contractor Hitachi has started electrifying the power station at the Binh Thai intersection in Thu Duc City.

It is one of two major stations for the entire line, with the other one at the Tan Cang Port area in Binh Thanh District.

The investor said it expects to start the trial run for the line in the fourth quarter.

Work on the much-delayed line, which began in 2012, is 87 percent complete, officials have said.

The city had hoped to begin commercial operations by the end of this year, but the Covid-19 outbreak has delayed it further.

Gia Minh