Vietnam's Long Thanh mega-airport may get new metro line straight from Vung Tau beach

Passengers could one day ride a metro from the beaches of Vung Tau straight to Vietnam's largest airport, under a proposal to extend a planned rail line to Long Thanh.

The Ho Chi Minh City Management Authority for Urban Railways has asked the city government to study extending Metro Line 3, designed to link central Vung Tau with Ba Ria and Phu My, to Long Thanh International Airport.

As currently drawn, the roughly 40-km line would terminate at National Highway 51 near the Dong Nai border, with no link to any other rail. The authority says ending it there wastes the investment and leaves the coast cut off from the region's main transport hubs.

Long Thanh airport is due to open commercially late this year as Vietnam's largest and is already planned as the hub of three major railways: the North-South high-speed line, the Thu Thiem-Long Thanh line, and an extension of the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro.

Splicing Line 3 into that web would hand travelers from Vung Tau, Ba Ria and Phu My a one-seat ride to both the airport and downtown Ho Chi Minh City.

For now, reaching Long Thanh from the coast means driving highways such as National Highway 51, which is already straining under traffic.

From central Vung Tau, Line 3 would run along Road 3/2, past the Chi Linh tourism area, then follow the Vung Tau-Binh Chau road, the coastal road and Road 55.

Because the extension would cross into Dong Nai, the authority wants the two sides to agree on who funds and builds that stretch before the study goes ahead.

Long Thanh airport construction site in Dong Nai City, southern Vietnam, March 2026. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

The proposal is one thread in a rail push that has swelled since Vietnam redrew its map. When Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau merged into Ho Chi Minh City in 2025, the city absorbed their transit plans, and its metro network is now envisioned at 27 lines spanning more than 1,000 km, a system reaching from the beaches of Vung Tau to the factory belts of Binh Duong.

The former Ba Ria-Vung Tau territory alone holds three of those lines: a 20-km loop around inner Vung Tau, a 65-km coastal run to Binh Chau, and Line 3. All are slated for after 2030.

Seven lines sit in the priority tier for completion by 2030. Three have broken ground: Ben Thanh-Tham Luong, Ben Thanh-Thu Thiem and Ben Thanh-Can Gio.

The remaining four are still in preparation. They are Thu Thiem-Long Thanh, Binh Duong New City-Suoi Tien, the first phase of Metro Line 6 from Tan Son Nhat to Phu Huu, and Thu Dau Mot-Tao Dan.

The Binh Duong New City-Suoi Tien line is furthest along of that group. Running about 33 km entirely on elevated track through seven wards, it would start at station S1 in central Binh Duong New City and end at Suoi Tien Bus Station, plugging straight into Metro Line 1.

It is planned with 19 stations and a depot in Binh Duong. The railway authority has signed Vietnam's TEDI and Japan's Nippon Koei to draw up the feasibility study and technical design, aiming to break ground this year.

A Becamex-Thaco consortium had earlier proposed building the line as a public-private partnership for more than VND64.3 trillion (US$2.45 billion), site clearance included, paired with transit-oriented development along the route to squeeze value from land in the former Binh Duong area.