Hanoi train street, and what is left of it
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A working railway runs between the front doors of a Hanoi neighbourhood with about a metre to spare on each side, and people have lived with it for a century. The cameras arrived a decade ago, the authorities have twice tried to shut it, and the trains keep coming.
What is train street, exactly?
Hanoi train street is an ordinary stretch of the Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City railway that happens to run through a residential lane. The houses were built up to the line during the French colonial period, and the gap that remains is about a metre on each side.
Nothing about the track is ceremonial. The services using it are scheduled trains on the north-south line, the same one the train guide covers end to end, and they run at ordinary speed.
What changed is the coffee. Around 2017 the trackside houses started putting stools out, and a residential curiosity became a photograph everybody wanted.
Is it open to visitors?
Access to Hanoi train street opens and closes, and it has done twice. The city shut the trackside cafes on safety grounds in 2019, reopened by degrees, and shut them again in 2022, with barriers and guards at the entrances. Hanoi then banned organised group tours to the lane in March 2025.
What survived all of that is the licensed cafes, and visitors get in as their customers. A guard may wave you off the public entrance while a cafe two doors down brings you through its own doorway, which is the arrangement most days.
Treat any statement that it is permanently closed, or permanently open, as out of date. The Hanoi things to do page puts it among the half-day stops rather than the fixed ones.
| What | Northern section | Southern section |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Phung Hung, near Hang Bong | Around Tran Phu and Le Duan |
| Cafes | Many, most of the photographs | Fewer, quieter |
| Crowds | Heavy at train times | Light |
| Access | Barriers come and go | Usually open |
What time do the trains pass?
The timetable moves, so the honest answer is that the cafes know and the internet does not. Services on this line are retimed regularly, and a list of times published last year is a list of times that were true last year.
Ask at the cafe when you sit down. They arrange the stools around the schedule, they get a call when the train leaves the station, and they clear the track well before it arrives.
Evenings are busier than mornings, and weekends carry more services than weekdays. Arriving an hour before a train and drinking something slowly is the whole method.
What does it cost?
Nothing to walk in, and 40,000 to 80,000 dong for the drink that gets you a stool. At about 26,000 dong to the US dollar that is one to three dollars, which is above normal Hanoi cafe prices and below anything with a view elsewhere.
Nobody sells tickets and nobody should be charging an entry fee. A guide offering paid access to a public lane is selling you the walk you can do yourself, a pattern the scams guide covers.
The cafes make their money on the drinks, which is why they want you seated rather than standing on the rails.
How dangerous is it?
The risk is real and it is about position rather than luck. A metre of clearance means a train passes within arm's length, drivers do not slow for photographs, and people have been injured standing in the wrong place with a phone up.
Stand where the staff put you, behind the painted line or inside the doorway, and step back when they say so. That is the entire safety procedure and it works.
Do not put a child on the track side, and do not put a tripod on the rails. The safety guide covers the general principle, which is that Vietnam expects you to manage your own margin.
When should you go?
Late afternoon into the evening, when the light is good and the services are more frequent. The lane faces the lanterns and the shop lights, which is why the evening photographs look like the ones you have seen.
Mornings are quieter and emptier, and a train in daylight is easier to photograph and less atmospheric. Either works.
Avoid the hour either side of a public holiday departure, when the line is busy and the lane is packed — the public holidays guide lists which dates those are.
Is it worth the trip?
For an hour, yes, and as part of a walk rather than a destination in itself. It sits ten minutes from the old quarter and fits between the market and dinner.
What makes it interesting is not the train. It is a neighbourhood that still does its laundry, cooks and plays cards a metre from a mainline railway, which is a piece of Hanoi that no museum shows.
Go once, sit for an hour, and leave the residents alone. The Hanoi three days route places it on the first evening, when jet lag makes an early dinner unlikely anyway.
FAQ
What is Hanoi train street?
A section of working railway that runs between houses in the old quarter of Hanoi, with about a metre of clearance on each side. Families live and cafes trade along the track, and the trains that use it are ordinary services on the north-south line rather than a tourist attraction.
Can you still visit Hanoi train street?
Yes, though access comes and goes. The authorities have closed the trackside cafes twice on safety grounds, in 2019 and again in 2022, and banned organised group tours in March 2025. In practice visitors get in through a cafe, which seats you off the rails and tells you when a train is due.
What time do the trains come?
Times move with the national timetable, and any figure printed online is out of date within months. The cafes know the current schedule and plan their seating around it, so ask when you sit down rather than trusting a blog. Weekend evenings usually carry more services than weekdays.
Is Hanoi train street safe?
It is safe if you do what the cafe staff say and stand where they put you. The danger is real rather than theoretical: the gap between the train and the walls is about a metre, the trains do not slow down for photographs, and people have been hurt standing in the wrong place.
Do you have to pay to visit train street?
There is no entry fee, but the practical price is a drink at a trackside cafe, usually 40,000 to 80,000 dong. That buys a stool, a view and somebody watching the timetable for you, which is the sensible way to see it when the barriers are up.
Where is Hanoi train street?
Two stretches, both a short walk from the old quarter: the section along Phung Hung street near Hang Bong, and a quieter one south of the station around Tran Phu and Le Duan. The northern section is the one in the photographs and the one with the cafes.