Hanoi Train Street

The cafes along Le Duan, Kham Thien, Tran Phu and Phung Hung streets have drawn visitors since 2018, and state media still reported them opening in August 2026. They have never been licensed for visitors. The city has closed them before, and in March 2026 the ward government, traffic police and the railway management unit were inspecting the Tran Phu and Phung Hung stretch and making shops take down signs, awnings and platforms that sat inside the railway safety corridor.

That means three things for a visitor. Some mornings the cafes are shut, some evenings a barrier or an officer turns people away, and on other days the lane is as busy as the photographs. Nobody publishes which. The table below sets each piece of the experience against its official position so you know what is plan and what is luck.

Cafes began to appear beside the tracks in 2018. Hanoi's authorities have since tried to stop them several times. The sequence matters because each round ended the same way: a closure, then a quiet reopening.

What the authorities say about tours

The ward's own statement in March 2026 is blunt: tour operators bringing visitors, foreigners included, to photograph the railway helped create the informal cafe street. That is why the March 2025 order went to operators first. It does not stop an independent visitor from walking a public street, and it does not stop operators from selling a food walk that ends nearby, but it explains why the listings on this page word the stop carefully.

On 6 January 2026 the Hanoi People's Committee proposed that southern trains end at Hanoi Station and northern trains end at Gia Lam Station, so that no passenger train would pass through the narrow section between Hanoi and Long Bien stations. The ministry's reply of 2 March 2026 went part of the way. Freight trains would stop entirely on the Hanoi, Long Bien and Gia Lam section, and passenger and tourist train frequencies would be reduced.

The ministry asked the city to finish the supporting work before July 2026. That work includes a passenger transfer hub with free shuttles at Gia Lam Station, repairs to the Bac Hong and Van Dien ring railway and a freight yard at Ha Dong Station.

What this means if you are planning a trip

If the trains stop, the lane becomes a quiet residential street beside an unused railway, and the cafe trade that depends on a train would lose its reason to exist. If the plan stalls, the lane stays as it is: tolerated at times, pushed back at others. Either way, treat Train Street as a thing you may find open, not as the reason for the trip.

A trip built around a train time is the one that goes wrong.

The line through the lane is the main north-south railway. Trains for Hai Phong and Lao Cai use the section, and the times are set by Vietnam Railways, which sells and publishes its own timetable for the stations. It does not publish a viewing schedule for a residential lane. Cafe staff tell visitors when they expect the next train, and these are the times people usually quote, but they change with the railway's schedule and the lane is the first place a change shows.

Three practical rules follow. First, never arrive for a specific train. Second, if a cafe owner or a tour guide says a train is due, do not take that as permission to go near the track. Third, check what is open on the day by asking at your hotel, because the answer changes by the week.

The cafe stretch most visitors mean is the one on Phung Hung and Tran Phu, west of the Old Quarter's guild streets and a short taxi hop from Hoan Kiem Lake. Hanoi Station sits at the southern end and Long Bien Station, at the foot of the Long Bien Bridge, at the northern end. The two are linked by one line and about 131 stone arch vaults that the city wants to turn into a tourism space.

On foot from the Old Quarter, the lane lies on its western side, so a walk from the lake or from a hotel in the guild streets is the simplest route. Whichever way you arrive, set the destination as a street and not as 'Train Street', because map apps send people to several different spots and the cafe cluster that is open on a given day changes.

The street is photogenic, the cafes use lanterns and low stools, and the houses are close enough to the rails to be startling. Those are the reasons it spread on social media. They are also the reasons the authorities want it controlled.

What you pay for in practice is a drink at a table in a lane that may or may not be open.

Operators write about Train Street in their own words, and the words are careful. The table lists what each listing actually states, taken from the listing and not from this site's judgement.

If your priority is the street, the railway walking tour is the only listing built around the line. If it is a good dinner with a quick stop, the food walks cost less and carry more food. See the Hanoi food tours compared for the whole set, or the wider Hanoi tours for rides and day trips.

Dan Tri International reported in June 2023 that the railway corporation had opened Hoa Xa Coffee Shop at Long Bien Station beside the line, and that guests can also sit or ask for train information free of charge. For safety the corporation fenced the site and posted guards. No opening hours or drink prices are published in that report, and a view of a passing train depends on the same timetable the 2026 plan is cutting, so treat it as a place to sit beside a real station, not as a guaranteed show.

The Flower Train and Long Bien Bridge

The railway walking tour in the comparison above adds a different way to see the line. After the Train Street stop, a taxi takes the group to Gia Lam Station for the Poinciana Flower Train across Long Bien Bridge, a ticket the listing says it includes. That is a ride on a train, not a view from a lane, and it sits at the other end of the same section the city is reshaping, so check at booking that the ride still runs.

The street without the lane

Phung Hung's mural-lined street and the arched wall beside it are part of the photo route and can be seen from the pavement without going near the rails. The photo-route listing names both as stops. For everything else near the western Old Quarter, the things to do in Hanoi page ranks the options.

BBC Travel dates the railway to 1902, built by the French to link Hanoi with the south. For decades the lane was a residential strip where trains shook the walls. A resident started selling drinks to curious visitors around 2017, neighbours followed and cafes spread. By 2018 the lane drew thousands of visitors a day, which is the date state media use for the start of the cafe trade. Visitors learned to arrive about half an hour before a scheduled train, and the lanterns, low stools and tables beside the rails became the image that travelled.

The authorities reacted in rounds. Each one closed the cafes for a time and each one was followed by a reopening, until the 2025 order against tours and the 2026 proposal to remove the trains themselves. The same sequence is why every guide you read, including this one, has to be read as of the day it was written.