Hanoi has two working metro lines. Neither one reaches the Old Quarter, Hoan Kiem (Hoàn Kiếm) Lake or Noi Bai (Nội Bài) Airport. They were built to connect outer districts to the center, not to serve visitor sights, so for most itineraries a metro ride adds a transfer rather than replacing one. This article goes station by station, so a reader can tell in advance whether the metro actually saves time or just adds a second leg.
What the two lines actually are
The first, Cat Linh–Ha Dong (also called Line 2A), opened in November 2021 after years of delay. It runs on an elevated viaduct for about 13km, from Cat Linh on the edge of Dong Da (Đống Đa) district, south-west along Nguyen Trai (Nguyễn Trãi) street, to Yen Nghia in Ha Dong (Hà Đông) district. It has 12 stations. VnExpress International covered both the opening and the delays that preceded it, and is a reasonable place to check the current operating pattern.
The second, Nhon–Hanoi Station (Line 3), is only partly open. Its elevated stretch, from Nhon to Cau Giay (Cầu Giấy), began carrying passengers in 2024, with roughly eight stations. The remaining section, which is underground, is meant to continue east to Hanoi’s main railway station. That part was still under construction at time of writing. Financing came partly through Japanese government loans, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has published its own account of the project’s funding and phasing.
Station by station: what’s actually within reach
The test that matters isn’t the map. It’s the walk. Ten minutes at a steady pace covers a little under a kilometre — the pace itself is covered in how to cross the road in Hanoi. Measured against that, most stations on both lines sit outside the area a visitor actually uses.
| Station (Cat Linh–Ha Dong) | District | Nearest visitor-relevant point | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cat Linh | Dong Da | Van Mieu (Văn Miếu), the Temple of Literature, roughly 1.5km off | Second leg needed; too far for a comfortable walk with limited time |
| La Thanh | Dong Da | None listed | Local interchange only |
| Thai Ha | Dong Da | None listed | Local only |
| Lang | Dong Da / Ba Dinh (Ba Đình) border | Hotel cluster on Lang Ha | Second leg to the lake or Old Quarter |
| Thuong Dinh | Thanh Xuan (Thanh Xuân) | University cluster along Nguyen Trai | Useful for students, not for sightseeing |
| Vanh Dai 3 | Thanh Xuan | Ring-road interchange | Transit only, no destination |
| Phung Khoang | Nam Tu Liem (Nam Từ Liêm) / Ha Dong border | Residential | No visitor pull |
| Van Quan | Ha Dong | Residential new town | No visitor pull |
| Ha Dong | Ha Dong | District center, a former silk-weaving town | Local heritage, not on a typical visitor circuit |
| La Khe | Ha Dong | Residential | No visitor pull |
| Van Khe | Ha Dong | Residential | No visitor pull |
| Yen Nghia | Ha Dong | Intercity bus station | Useful only for onward bus travel south-west |
On the Nhon–Cau Giay stretch, the geography is simpler because there’s less of it open. Cau Giay, the eastern terminus, sits in a district dense with universities and offices, but West Lake (Tay Ho / Tây Hồ) is still several kilometres off. The middle stations run through Bac Tu Liem (Bắc Từ Liêm), largely residential and light-industrial. Nhon, the western terminus, is a suburban edge point with no visitor draw at all. The exact station names in between are worth checking on the operator’s own map before traveling, since the underground extension is still being built and the network is not finished changing.
How the fare works, without a number attached
Both lines use a distance-based fare: a single ride costs more the further you go, bought either as a paper ticket from a station machine or loaded onto a rechargeable card. Day passes and monthly passes exist alongside single-journey tickets, aimed at commuters rather than visitors making one trip. None of those figures belong here — a stale fare is worse than no fare, and this site has no live feed into the operator’s tariff. Hanoi Metro, the operator, publishes the current bands on its own site, and that is the only place a reader should check them before traveling.
Machines take cash and bank cards. If paying cash, the usual warning applies: the 20,000 and 500,000 dong notes are both blue polymer, so count the zeros, not the color.
Who the lines actually serve
Commuters, mostly. Cat Linh–Ha Dong follows Nguyen Trai, a corridor with several universities strung along it, which makes Thuong Dinh and the stations near it genuinely useful for students living in Ha Dong and studying nearer the center. Ha Dong itself is a large residential district whose commuters previously depended on buses and motorbikes for a slow road journey into town; the line shortens that. On Line 3, Cau Giay’s mix of offices and universities makes the eastern end a real commuter destination, even though it isn’t a visitor one.
What this means for a visitor’s plan
If a destination isn’t on the table above within a short walk, the metro isn’t the fast option, whatever the map suggests. The practical pattern for most visitor days is to walk the compact core on foot and use a ride-hailing app for anything outside it; the difference between the two main apps operating here is covered in GrabCar vs GrabBike in Hanoi. Noi Bai Airport, in particular, is 25–30km north of the center with no rail link at all, so every arrival and departure is a road journey regardless of what the metro map shows. More on getting around the city, including how the road-crossing convention actually works, sits in the Getting Around archive.
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Access Hanoi is an independent guide written from published, checkable sources. We have not visited the places described here and we do not publish personal recommendations or invented ‘local favorites’ — where something is singled out as notable, we say who says so. Opening times, fares, closures and prices change at short notice, so treat everything here as a starting point and confirm with the museum, operator or venue directly before building a day around it. We give no advice on visas, insurance, health or safety; use your own government’s official guidance for those.