You might have heard of the Railway Food Market in Thailand but here’s another urban oddity to feast your eyes on. This is the main line railway that passes through the residential old quarter and commercial neighbourhoods of Hanoi, Vietnam. The trains pass through the heart of the city twice a day, just inches away from the doorsteps of residential buildings.
Lead image (c) Trotter Mag
Images (c) Ashit Desai
Adam Armstrong traveled to Vietnam recently and witnessed the train in action…
Speaking to Oddity Central about the urban railway, Adam recalls the surreal sight…
“The people here know the schedule well,” said Adam. “At just about 4 pm and 7 pm every day, you suddenly notice people start to file into their homes and in the front yard where kids were playing and women were cutting vegetables is suddenly replaced by rushing steel and noise.”
Image (c) Helge Arne Hanken
Image (c) Sabine Fricke
Image (c) Lose_Grip
In a local newspaper claiming that more than $2 billion would be needed to improve conditions of Vietnam’s railways, Vice chairman of National Committee for Traffic Safety Nguyen Hoang Hiep told Viet Nam News that each year, the number of people dying in railway accidents accounts for about 2 per cent of all deaths in Viet Nam.
“A majority of railway accidents reportedly happen at crossings, especially at illegally-built crossings. At present, Viet Nam has nearly 3,200 kilometres of railway with about 6,000 railroad crossings. However, just 1,000 were built legally while the rest were built illegally as shortcuts by households who live along railways,” said the Chairman.
Image (c) Torsten Schmidt
Image (c) Florian Grupp
Image (c) Lose_Grip
Image (c) Paul Johnson
Could there be a more appropriate situation to use the phrase, “too close to home”?
via Oddity Central
