Hanoi's most popular street could kill you
When Train Street first opened, it was a very narrow lane with a train speeding through it. It is now overrun with Instagram-worthy eateries and tourists who, in spite of the dangers, can not leave.
As a train travels through Hanoi, it approaches a little corridor that is decorated with lanterns in the Chinese style. A visitor attempts her most social media-friendly pose by jumping onto the tracks as it screams into the station. She flinches to safety just as the train hits, its horn blasting into the muggy air. Post by clicking.
It is a typical day on Train Street in Hanoi, a 400-meter section of railroad surrounded by cafés where visitors sip beer and gaze on in awe as trains thunder by them at dangerously close quarters, occasionally colliding with chairs and tables.
Fun? Evidently, Train Street, along with Ha Long Bay and the Cu Chi Tunnels, has become one of Vietnam's "must-see" sites in a matter of years. The Vietnamese government, however, is not as impressed; since the site went viral in 2017, it has tried a number of shutdowns, first in 2019 and then in 2022, and most recently in 2025, following an incident in which a tourist who was taking selfies was almost dragged beneath the wheels of an approaching train. Between train arrivals, police roadblocks are erected, and tour operators and bar owners receive directives.
Regardless, the tourists show up.
From ordinary to unmissable
How did a regular street become into one of the most popular tourist destinations in Vietnam? It began rather casually.
French colonialists constructed the North-South Railway in 1902 to link Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Fifty-four years later, the General Department of Railway built a number of squat structures to house staff along a section of central Hanoi. By the 1970s, the neighborhood was regarded as a slum; people were frequently startled out of their slumber by trains thundering by and their homes trembling.Minh Anh, a lifetime resident of Hanoi who works at the local whisky factory Vỹ Đüge Đi, stated, "It was just an average neighborhood with rail lines running through it." "I was genuinely shocked when it began to circulate on social media."
Just before it became extremely popular, Nhi Nguyn, a tour guide for A Taste of Hanoi, used to lead visitors around. "There were not so many cafes near to the rails back then, and people were still living their normal lives there," she remarked. "It felt much more real: people were cooking on little gas burners outside, laundered clothing were hanging outside, and scooters were locked up only meters from the trains."
In order to demonstrate to tourists how locals had adapted to the locomotive-sized problem of living on railway tracks, Colm Pierce and Alex Sheal, co-founders of Hanoi-based photography tours Vietnam in Focus, started a Hanoi on the Tracks trip at the beginning of 2013. Coincidentally, Instagram introduced a new function for posting videos in June 2013. Travelers were further enticed when Pierce strolled down Train Street with a camera team on the Travel Channel program "Tough Trains" a year later.
An enterprising local began serving coffee and beer in 2017, luring interested people to remain and watch the train pass. As soon as the neighbors saw the economic potential, cafes and bars quickly sprung up. Before long, the once-empty alley—now known as Phố Đường Tàu, or "Train Street"—bedecked itself with Christmas lights and colorful lanterns. The "classic" Train Street experience was solidified when visitors discovered that they should arrive 30 minutes before a scheduled train. Local merchants led tourists into rail-side bars as soon as they entered the tracks, where they were served coffee and beers until the train screamed through, rattling plates and making hearts race.
"We put our beer caps on the railway, and the train crushed it, making keepsakes for us," remarked Julia Husum, a Norwegian university student who "liked" her visit to Train Street in February 2026. "I would return."
The eternal human fear of missing out
According to Charlotte Russell, founder of The Travel Psychologist, going to Train Street is comparable to seeing the Eiffel Tower on a person's first trip to Paris for more surface-level reasons.Since humans are social creatures, it makes sense for us to want to participate in an activity if we see others enjoying it, the speaker stated. This dates back to the time in our evolutionary history when we lived in tiny groups and it was beneficial for us to imitate others in this way. Therefore, it is a natural aspect of being human to feel the dread of missing out when we witness others going to locations like Train Street.
Russell's theory is supported by Bearix Stewart-Frommer, an American pre-med student: "I found out about Train Street from my mum," she stated. "I was intrigued since it is one of those weird, highly photogenic sites that people talk about on social media, but I did not have some profound drive to see it."
However, Russell points out that there might be a deeper explanation for why we are drawn to these kinds of locations: "With Train Street in particular, the risk aspect is part of what makes it so interesting, especially those of us from nations like the UK… We are accustomed to rules, safety measures, painted lines, railings, and barriers that we must abide by. On the other hand, Train Street can be astounding to witness and experience. It encourages us to consider our own standards and acknowledge the existence of alternative viewpoints.
One such different viewpoint is provided by local tour guide Phuong Loan Ngo: "The economic impact is clear, giving families who live along Train Street cash opportunity," she stated. However, there are also cultural difficulties. A location's historical and cultural legacy may be lost when it turns into a social media "spotlight." People frequently leave with just a picture, losing the real essence of the neighborhood, rather than understanding about how this railway has operated from the colonial era.Ironically, Vietnam in Focus has now shifted their photography trips to a different, less-traveled section of the railroad in order to introduce tourists to the traditional way of life along the tracks.Like anything positive, Train Street's appeal and the audiences it draws are growing," Sheal added. "Thank goodness, after searching all around Hanoi, we discovered a great local market farther out in the suburbs that runs beside the Hanoian railway—a brand-new attraction."
That is, until it is discovered by the travel-obsessed masses who are infatuated with social media. For better or worse, Train Street's intolerable brightness is a constant but movable feast.
