The Hanoi Train Street schedule in Vietnam Railways’ official timetable, checked on November 3, 2026, still sends passenger trains along both stretches that carry the name: on the Phùng Hưng side they are timed at Hà Nội station from 05:40 to 22:40, with daytime trains at 08:00, 08:49, 09:25, 11:52, 13:30, 15:15, 17:40 and 18:10, and on the Khâm Thiên side from 03:40 to 22:15, local time (UTC+7). Visiting is not officially allowed, since the area remains under a ban that Hanoi has tried to enforce since 2019, and police fined a café owner on the Khâm Thiên stretch after a train knocked a phone from a tourist’s hand on August 7, 2026. A February 2026 agreement to reduce passenger trains and stop freight on the Phùng Hưng section was meant to be in place before July 2026, yet the timetable for November and December still has the four Hải Phòng and two Lào Cai train pairs counted there in March, plus the new SP15, and no report found says the cut has begun.
Where is Hanoi Train Street?
Two stretches of track share the name. The northern one runs from the Điện Biên Phủ street crossing past Trần Phú and along Phùng Hưng street, on the rail section between Hà Nội and Long Biên stations, according to VnExpress; Hanoi’s city government describes 131 stone arches on the Hà Nội to Đồng Đăng line along Phùng Hưng. The southern stretch runs from Khâm Thiên street to Alley 222 Lê Duẩn in Văn Miếu-Quốc Tử Giám ward, which counted 21 food and drink businesses there in April 2026, and traffic police place it on the Hà Nội to Hồ Chí Minh City railway.
Hanoi Train Street schedule: the Phùng Hưng and Trần Phú stretch
Below is every passenger train the official timetable shows running between Hà Nội station and Long Biên or Gia Lâm, the next stations up the line, plus BHL1, which lists no stop there but runs the same distance as BHL3. The data is Vietnam Railways’ Giờ tàu, Giá vé lookup, linked from dsvn.vn, read on November 3, 2026 for 11 travel dates between November 3 and December 15; each train was listed on every sampled date unless marked. Long Biên and Gia Lâm times are arrivals for trains leaving Hà Nội and departures for trains heading in; SP15, SP3 and SP7 leave Gia Lâm three minutes after the times shown, the boarding times in the Hanoi to Sapa guide.
| Hà Nội station | Train | Route | Long Biên | Gia Lâm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| arrives 05:40 | SP4 | from Lào Cai | no stop | 05:17 |
| leaves 06:00 | HP1 | to Hải Phòng | no stop | 06:20 |
| leaves 06:25 | QT9 | to Lưu Xá (November 5 to 7 only) | 06:33 | no stop |
| leaves 08:00 | BHL1 | The Hanoi Train, to Từ Sơn (no stop listed before Từ Sơn) | no stop | no stop |
| arrives 08:49 | LP2 | from Hải Phòng | 08:41 | 08:24 |
| leaves 09:25 | LP3 | to Hải Phòng | 09:33 | 09:49 |
| arrives 11:52 | LP6 | from Hải Phòng | 11:44 | 11:27 |
| leaves 13:30 | BHL3 | The Hanoi Train, to Từ Sơn | 13:38 | no stop |
| leaves 15:15 | LP5 | to Hải Phòng | 15:23 | 15:40 |
| arrives 17:40 | LP8 | from Hải Phòng | 17:32 | 17:15 |
| leaves 18:10 | LP7 | to Hải Phòng | 18:18 | 18:35 |
| arrives 19:03 | LP10 | from Hải Phòng (Sundays in November only) | 18:55 | 18:38 |
| arrives 19:17 | QT10 | from Lưu Xá (November 5 to 7 only) | 19:08 | no stop |
| arrives 19:30 | SP8 | from Lào Cai | no stop | 19:07 |
| arrives 21:15 | HP2 | from Hải Phòng | no stop | 20:55 |
| leaves 21:45 | SP15 | to Lào Cai | no stop | 22:07 |
| leaves 22:00 | SP3 | to Lào Cai | no stop | 22:22 |
| leaves 22:40 | SP7 | to Lào Cai | no stop | 23:02 |
BHL1, The Hanoi Train’s 08:00 departure, lists no stop before Từ Sơn, but the timetable puts Từ Sơn 17 km from Hà Nội for both BHL1 and BHL3, which stops at Long Biên. Znews pictured this two-deck tourist train on Long Biên Bridge in January 2026 and reported that it started from Gia Lâm while the bridge was shut in February. SP16 from Lào Cai, due at Hà Nội at 05:15, lists no stop between Phúc Yên and Hà Nội, though the timetable gives it the same 294 km as SP4, which stops at Gia Lâm, so it most likely passes the street before dawn.
The Khâm Thiên and Lê Duẩn stretch
This stretch lies on the line south toward Hồ Chí Minh City, so the trains that pass are those leaving Hà Nội southbound and those arriving from the south. Same source and dates; times are at Hà Nội station.
| Direction | Trains and scheduled times |
|---|---|
| Leaving Hà Nội southbound | SE7 06:00, PL1 06:15, SE5 08:00, SE9 13:00, SE3 19:20, SE19 19:45, SE1 21:45, NA1 22:15 |
| Arriving at Hà Nội from the south | SE10 03:40, SE4 04:36, NA2 05:21, SE2 05:42, SE20 11:10, SE8 16:20, PL2 18:30, SE6 19:14 |
Extra trains are listed on some dates only: SE45 southbound at 14:55 on November 4, and QT9 and QT10 to and from Lưu Xá on November 5 to 7.
When the train actually reaches the cafés
Trains that stop at both Hà Nội and Long Biên are scheduled to take eight or nine minutes between them (LP3 leaves at 09:25 and reaches Long Biên at 09:33), so on the Phùng Hưng stretch the train goes by inside that window. The Lào Cai trains in the table, plus HP1 and HP2, run straight between Hà Nội and Gia Lâm, over Long Biên Bridge, in 20 to 23 minutes, meeting the street near the start of that run when outbound and near the end when inbound. None of the sources found gives passing times for the Khâm Thiên stretch: a southbound train passes soon after leaving Hà Nội, an arriving one shortly before it stops.
Build in a margin. A café owner on the Phùng Hưng stretch told VnExpress in March 2025 that businesses ask customers to step off the track 15 minutes before a train, and the BBC reported in February 2026 that visitors learned to turn up half an hour ahead. These are scheduled times; the dsvn.vn menu also lists a Hành trình tàu thực tế (actual train running) page. The lookup lists passenger services only. VnExpress reported in January 2026 that the Hà Nội to Gia Lâm section carried 6 freight trains a day as well as 20 passenger trains, and no report found says the freight has stopped; the return runs of The Hanoi Train, BHL2 and BHL4, are not listed at all. Expect trains outside the tables.
Schedules change. The SP15 and SP16 pair began running on October 10, 2026. LP10, a Sunday-only train in the February timetable VietnamPlus reported, is listed for the Sundays of November but for none of the December Sundays, as read on November 3. In early February 2026, trains were kept off Long Biên Bridge after a broken steel plate was found on span 18 on February 2; they returned on February 9. The three night departures at 21:45, 22:00 and 22:40 are the trains covered in the Hanoi to Sapa guide, which ride this track toward Lào Cai.
Is Hanoi Train Street open? A dated timeline
- October 4, 2019: The Ministry of Transport asked Hanoi to break up the café gatherings inside the railway corridor (VnExpress).
- October 10, 2019: Police set up barriers where the track meets Trần Phú, Điện Biên Phủ and Phùng Hưng streets (VnExpress).
- September 14, 2022: At Vietnam Railways’ request, movable barriers and no-entry signs went up on the Phùng Hưng section at Trần Phú, Điện Biên Phủ and Cửa Nam streets (Hànội Mới). Four days later a Lào Cai to Hà Nội train hit a South Korean tourist snapping selfies at Trần Phú and Lý Nam Đế streets in Ba Đình; she suffered only minor scrapes (Tuổi Trẻ News).
- March 7, 2025: Hanoi’s Department of Tourism told travel and transport companies not to promote or run tours to the café area in Cửa Nam, Hàng Bông and Cửa Đông wards, citing railway safety, repeating an April 2023 request (Báo Văn Hóa, Znews).
- October 8 and 9, 2025: After a video showed a train knocking café tables and chairs aside, police checked the Khâm Thiên stretch and fined four businesses 2.5 million VND each for leaving goods inside the railway safety corridor (Znews).
- January 2026: The city asked the Ministry of Construction to stop passenger trains between Hà Nội and Gia Lâm stations, ending southern trains at Hà Nội and northern ones at Gia Lâm. The railway’s passenger operator said 20 passenger trains a day would have to start or end at Gia Lâm instead (VnExpress, January 6 and 7).
- January 28 and February 3, 2026: A Khâm Thiên café owner was fined 2.5 million VND (about US$98) after a video showed a customer about 50 cm from the rail, and police then cleared hundreds of visitors from that stretch (VnExpress, Dân Trí).
- February 27, 2026: Hanoi and the Ministry of Construction settled on thinning out passenger runs and ending goods traffic between Hà Nội and Gia Lâm stations (VnEconomy, Vietcetera). The ministry’s March 2 letter wanted the changes done before July 2026. VnExpress International reported that the Trần Phú entrance, though barricaded, still drew thousands of people a day.
- April 10, 2026: Văn Miếu-Quốc Tử Giám ward said it had kept three fixed checkpoints along the Khâm Thiên stretch since early 2026, staffed in three shifts a day (VTV).
- May 15, 2026: Decree 81/2026/NĐ-CP took effect, fining individuals 300,000 to 500,000 VND for walking, standing or sitting on the railway.
- August 7, 2026: At about 13:30, a train struck the phone of a foreign tourist sitting by the rails at the Nhà Dầu housing block, on the Hà Nội to Hồ Chí Minh City line. Nobody was injured, and police penalized the café owner for selling goods inside the railway safety corridor (VTV); Ngôi Sao put the fine at 2.5 million VND. On August 11, Tuổi Trẻ found tables still set beside the rails, with police on watch.
- September 10, 2026: A draft national rail plan for the Hanoi area proposed turning the Hà Nội to Gia Lâm section into urban rail (Luật sư Việt Nam).
- September 22, 2026: Báo Gia Lai reported that the Vietnam Railway Authority had proposed shifting Hanoi’s long-distance passenger hubs to Ngọc Hồi and Gia Lâm stations in stages, with Hà Nội station moving to urban rail; no date was given.
Status as of November 3, 2026: The official timetable lists passenger trains through both stretches on every sampled date from November 3 to December 15, 2026. No source found reports that the area has been approved for visitors or that the February 2026 train cut has started. The newest source is that timetable, read on November 3; the newest reports on the street itself are Tuổi Trẻ’s visit of August 11 and VTV’s account of the police finding on August 13, 2026.
Rules and safety
After the August incident, Hanoi traffic police restated the railway safety corridor rules: businesses must keep goods, tables and chairs out of the corridor, and residents and visitors must not stand, sit, take photos or film on the track or inside the corridor (VTV). Being on the track is itself a violation: from December 15, 2025 to February 3, 2026, the traffic police team covering the Khâm Thiên stretch handled 14 railway violations, among them walking or standing on the track and stopping inside the safety zone, with fines totaling more than 7 million VND (Dân Trí). Under Decree 81/2026/NĐ-CP, in force since May 15, 2026, walking, standing, lying or sitting on the railway costs an individual 300,000 to 500,000 VND (about US$12 to $20), and selling goods or services in the railway safety corridor 2 to 3 million VND.
Transport specialist Phan Lê Bình pointed out to Tuổi Trẻ in August 2026 that a train already in motion cannot be halted quickly. In the 2022 collision, the gates had already closed the Trần Phú crossing for the arriving Lào Cai train, and the tourist remained beside the rails anyway.
The cafés on Train Street
The cafés are residents’ homes turned into drink shops. In October 2019, VnExpress described a Trần Phú resident as the first to open one, about a year earlier; he said most residents had worked for the railway and that the strip drew about 300 customers a day. The BBC instead dates the first beer and coffee sales by a resident to 2017. Vendors learned the train times by heart to warn customers, and in 2025 owners were posting the times on their doors (VnExpress, Báo Văn Hóa). On the Khâm Thiên side, Ngôi Sao reported in August 2026 that some cafés seat guests right at the rails and keep staff outside as lookouts, clearing tables and moving guests indoors when officers appear.
The cafés sell coffee and beer. Vietnam Airlines’ travel guide, which carries no date, says the Phùng Hưng cafés serve drip coffee and egg coffee, and the BBC describes tourists drinking beer and coffee as trains pass. For the drink itself, see the guide to Vietnamese egg coffee. The sanctioned alternative is Hỏa Xa café, a former waiting room at Long Biên station that Vietnam Railways opened in June 2023, hoping to give visitors a safe and legal place to watch trains (Đại Đoàn Kết); Vietcetera describes it as set back from the rails. No 2026 report on its opening hours was found. Other sights are in things to do in Hanoi.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hanoi Train Street open right now?
Not officially. As of November 3, 2026, the area remains under a ban, police patrol it and fine violations, and tour companies have been told not to run tours to the Phùng Hưng side. Cafés were last reported open in August 2026, and the official timetable still runs trains on both stretches.
What time does the train pass Hanoi Train Street?
On the Phùng Hưng stretch, the November 2026 timetable puts trains at Hà Nội station at 05:40, 06:00, 08:00, 08:49, 09:25, 11:52, 13:30, 15:15, 17:40, 18:10, 19:30, 21:15, 21:45, 22:00 and 22:40, plus 19:03 on Sundays in November. The train goes by in the minutes before an arrival or after a departure, and freight and other trains that are not in the timetable can come at other times. Khâm Thiên times are in the second table.
Can you still sit in the train street cafés?
Cafés have usually reopened after each crackdown, and Tuổi Trẻ found tables set beside the rails on August 11, 2026. Seats inside the railway safety corridor break the rules, and police have fined café owners and penalized people for standing on the track, so sit back from the rails and follow staff and police instructions.
Is Hanoi Train Street safe?
It carries real risk. Trains struck a South Korean visitor in 2022 and a tourist’s phone in August 2026; neither caused serious injury, but a moving train cannot be halted quickly.
What is the best time to visit Hanoi Train Street?
Choose a train from the tables and arrive about half an hour early, as the BBC says visitors learned to do; café owners on the Phùng Hưng side remind customers to leave the track 15 minutes before a train. Someone who has lived on the street for over 20 years told Tuổi Trẻ in August 2026 that mornings draw people as well, though the trains due around 15:00 to 16:00 pull the largest numbers; on the Phùng Hưng side that is LP5, leaving Hà Nội at 15:15, while on the Khâm Thiên side nothing is scheduled between SE9 at 13:00 and SE8, due at 16:20.
Why was Hanoi Train Street closed?
For railway safety. Authorities called for the cafés to be cleared from the railway corridor in October 2019, barricaded the Phùng Hưng section again in September 2022, and have kept up inspections since. In January 2026 Hanoi went further and asked for passenger services on that section to end, as part of a plan to rework the area around Long Biên Bridge and the 131 arches.
Sources
- Vietnam Railways (Tập đoàn Đường sắt Quốc gia Việt Nam), Giờ tàu, Giá vé timetable data, travel dates November 3 to December 15, 2026, accessed November 3, 2026
- Vietnam Railways, dsvn.vn ticketing site, accessed November 2, 2026
- Báo Lào Cai, Tuyến đường sắt Hà Nội-Lào Cai tăng lên 3 đôi tàu khách mỗi ngày, thêm lựa chọn cho du khách, October 11, 2026
- Vietcombank, exchange rates, November 2, 2026
- VnExpress, Xóm cà phê đường tàu, September 29, 2019
- VnExpress, Hà Nội được yêu cầu xóa cà phê đường tàu, October 5, 2019
- VnExpress, Hà Nội dẹp xóm cà phê đường tàu, October 10, 2019
- VnExpress, Công an dựng rào chắn khu cà phê đường tàu, October 10, 2019
- Tuổi Trẻ News, Hanoi train hits S.Korean visitor sneaking under railway barriers for photography, September 19, 2022
- Đại Đoàn Kết, Quán cà phê mới mở tại ga tàu Long Biên hút khách tới check-in, June 11, 2023
- Hànội Mới, Quy định dừng hoạt động dịch vụ ở phố cà phê đường tàu: Nơi làm nghiêm, nơi lơi lỏng, December 16, 2023
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- Vietnam Airlines, Hanoi Train Street: Sip Coffee with a Rush of Adrenaline (travel guide, undated), accessed November 3, 2026
Featured image: A train approaches along Hanoi Train Street at night, past a roadside rice stall, in June 2020. Photo: Rod Waddington, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
