Disrupted spaces, adaptive lives: Unequal impacts of Hanoi’s first urban railway lines

In this article, we examine two urban railway projects in Hanoi, Vietnam: Line 2A, operational since 2021, and Line 3, currently partly operational and partly under construction. Despite high hopes for these ‘sustainable’ transportation projects, little scholarly attention has focused on the inequities and negative impacts associated with their construction and operations. Specifically, the displacements and insecurities faced by Hanoi residents living or working along these lines have been largely overlooked. Drawing on conceptual debates from the recent infrastructure turn, we examine how Hanoi’s first two urban railway lines have disrupted the lives and livelihoods of local residents. Our findings are based upon in-depth qualitative fieldwork conducted in 2019, 2022, and 2024, including interviews, a photovoice project along Line 2A, and an ethnographic case study of an alley partly destroyed by Line 3’s construction. We find that the land acquisition and construction processes have inflicted infrastructural violence on numerous nearby residents and workers, creating categories of ‘lucky’, ‘unlucky’, and ‘least lucky’ residents. We investigate how some residents are adapting by establishing new livelihoods beneath or alongside the lines, carving out opportunities in otherwise underutilised spaces. We argue that these individuals are engaging in careful urban spatial politics to navigate the impacts of these projects while avoiding conflict with urban officials focused on ‘modernisation’ discourses.