By November 1901, the Line Had Been Extended to Buoi Market and Entered Service.

From rickshaws and cyclos to trams, buses and trolleybuses, Hanoi's public transport has passed through many incarnations, each tied to memories of the old city. In 1899, Governor-General of Indochina Paul Doumer ordered the construction of Hanoi's tram network, following Saigon's. Around September 1900, the first tram ran a test service on the Bo Ho-Lang Giay (Thuy Khue) line. By November 1901, the line had been extended to Buoi Market and entered service.

Once complete, the network comprised five lines: Bo Ho-Buoi, Bo Ho-Ha Dong, Bo Ho-Cho Mo, Bo Ho-Cau Giay and Yen Phu-Vong. A tram runs down the middle of Hang Dao Street in the 1940s. Hanoi Station, also known as Hang Co Station, opened in 1902 and was once among the largest railway stations in Southeast Asia. It was built as the French administration developed rail lines across Indochina.

The station was initially the starting point of the Hanoi-Lang Son railway, joined by the Hanoi-Hai Phong line in 1903. In 1905 a line to Lao Cai was established. By 1939, Hanoi Station had become the junction of the trans-Vietnam railway. Before 1884, Hanoi had no public transport.

Residents mostly walked or rode ox carts, while mandarins traveled by hammock or palanquin. Horse-drawn carriages appeared in 1885 as the city's first public transport, mainly carrying French residents from the Don Thuy concession into the center via Trang Tien and Trang Thi. In 1940, American photographer Harrison Forman documented Hanoi under French rule, capturing bicycles and rickshaws crowding the streets.

His images of the Cua Nam flower garden and Hang Bong and Hang Khay streets show what transport and urban life looked like more than 80 years ago. Rickshaws and cyclos on Trang Tien Street, then Paul Bert Street, outside the Eden Cinema, now the Cong Nhan Theater. The intersection at Trang Tien Plaza, then the Grands Magasins Reunis department store, was the busiest in the city in the 1940s, drawing every mode of public transport of the era.

At Ben Nua, near the foot of Long Bien Bridge in what is now the Tran Nhat Duat-Yen Phu area, three filling stations run by Shell, Texaco and Socony stood in a row. Coaches refueled here before carrying passengers to provinces including Hai Phong, Bac Ninh, Phu Lang Thuong, Lang Son, Cao Bang, Tuyen Quang, Bac Giang, Tam Dao and Viet Tri. Intercity services at Ben Nua were posted with their destinations and the road distance from Hanoi.

Before it, Cot Dong Ho, the Clock Tower, served as the city's first passenger terminal. Hanoi added the Cua Nam and Kim Ma terminals in the 1920s. Photo taken in 1940-1941 by Harrison Forman. Vietnam's civil aviation industry began in January 1956, when the government established the Civil Aviation Department.