Vietnam Railway Corporation (VNR) launched the mobile service of booking and paying for train tickets via MoMo application on May 7.

According to VNR, passengers need to download the MoMo app on their mobile phones to avail the online facility. To pay for tickets, customers will need to have a banking account in one of the 14 banks that have payment linkage with the MoMo e-wallet. The time for payment is some two to five minutes.

The e-wallet service is applicable to all existing domestic railway routes. To mark the launch of the new service, VNR and MoMo will offer a discount of up to VND500,000 to customers who book and pay for train tickets online from May 7 to August 7.

VNR chairman Vu Anh Minh said the launch of online booking and payment services was one of the ways to improve the service quality of the railway sector.

VNR expects to earn an after-tax profit of VND158 billion in 2018, a year-on-year increase of VND4 billion while raising the average income of employees by 10 per cent. To achieve the target, Minh said VNR would focus on upgrading railway infrastructure, installing 100 new engines by 2020, building six new passenger trains and replacing out-of-date freight cars. — VNS