Neil Melloy’s article in The Australian highlights Hanoi’s new Five Gates tourist train, offering a unique view of the iconic Train Street. Launched in September 2025, the journey showcases daily life along the railway, features historic gates, and includes live folk music, transforming a popular attraction into a culturally reflective experience.
The Australian has published an article by Neil Melloy spotlighting Hanoi’s newly launched Five Gates tourist train, offering travelers a fresh perspective on the city’s iconic Train Street, a narrow railway corridor that has become a global social media phenomenon.
Rather than joining the crowds lining the tracks, Melloy chose to experience the route from inside the Hanoi Five Gates train, watching curious onlookers pass by as the carriages moved slowly through one of the capital’s most photographed streets. Launched in September 2025, the service reimagines Train Street as part of a broader cultural journey, pairing the spectacle with everyday glimpses of Hanoi life.
Departing Hanoi Station at 8:00 am, the restored double-decker train enters Train Street almost immediately before continuing toward the city’s outskirts. Along the way, tightly packed homes, backyard gardens, small farms, and busy streets unfold just metres from the tracks, illustrating how closely rail infrastructure is woven into daily life.
Each of the train’s five carriages represents one of the historic gates of the Thang Long Citadel, restored to reflect different eras of Vietnamese history. The interiors are finished in bold greens, reds, and oranges, with simple seating arranged to maximise outward views.
“We’re close enough and travelling sufficiently slowly to peer into household kitchens and watch city dwellers pegging laundry on their lines,” Melloy wrote.
The 40-minute journey follows sections of Soviet-era and French-built rail and bridge infrastructure to Do Temple in neighbouring Bac Ninh Province. On the return leg at 10:30 am, passengers are treated to folk music and traditional fried doughnuts, followed by a 20-minute stop in an open-top carriage for photos with the Long Bien Bridge, the historic 2.4-kilometre structure built in the early 20th century, forming a dramatic backdrop.
According to the article, the Five Gates train transforms a familiar attraction into a slower, more reflective experience, reframing Train Street not just as a spectacle, but as part of Hanoi’s living urban fabric.
Australian Hospitality Alumni Network Vietnam 