A dozen years after it broke ground, Ho Chi Minh City has unveiled its first subway line in Vietnam’s largest city.

A train of the Line 1 of the HCMC Metro is seen past residential buildings in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec. 22, 2024. When construction began in 2012, authorities promised the line would be up and running in five years.

After years of funding shortages, ballooning costs and bureaucratic foot-dragging, Ho Chi Minh City is opening the first metro line to serve its 10 million residents.

The Metro Line No. 1 of Ho Chi Minh City running from Ben Thanh to Suoi Tien will be open for free for one month after its official inauguration ceremony on December 22. In the following days, the stations are open from 5am to 10pm. every day, with trains running every 8 to 12 minutes. There are 31 bus routes connecting to the Metro Line No. 1.

Hundreds queued and some broke into song for their first ride on the 19.7-km Ho Chi Minh City Metro Line No. 1. The city of nearly 10 million was one of Asia's last major urban centers not to have a metro.

Ho Chi Minh City plans to transition its entire public bus network to electric and green energy vehicles by 2030, starting with new electric bus routes in 2025.

Years of start-and-stop construction means the seemingly new ticket vending machines are partly obsolete: they accept coins that are no longer in circulation.