Forty-five percent of the public only plan to use it during weekends or occasionally, according to a survey recently released by HCMC-based market research firm Q&Me.

The remaining 27 percent are either not sure or do not intend to use the metro at all. 

The survey, which polled 600 respondents aged 18-45 nationwide, found that the top concerns are inconvenient routes (28 percent) and unavailability nearby (24 percent).

One in five respondents said they would prefer to ride their own motorbikes. The other reasons given for not using the metro were lack of trust and a lack of understanding of how it works.

Only 31 percent said they knew clearly what a metro was though a majority of them had heard about it before.

92 percent of the people surveyed use a motorbike as their main means of transport, 54 percent have increased their driving frequency in the last year, and 58 percent are in Hanoi and HCMC. 

A report by the Ministry of Transport said all of Vietnam’s five metro projects have seen their costs balloon following long delays, with VND81 trillion ($3.5 billion) being the budget overrun.

Hanoi plans to have nine metro routes by 2030, but work has begun on only two and neither has started operations. 

The city's first metro line Cat Linh- Ha Dong runs 13 kilometers from Cat Linh Station in downtown Dong Da District to the Yen Nghia Station in the south-west Ha Dong District. This project missed its deadline last April and is now 99 percent completed.

The Nhon-Hanoi Railway Station route, or the second metro line, is now half complete. It runs 12.5 kilometers from Nhon area in the western district of Nam Tu Liem, via Kim Ma Street to Hanoi Railway Station in the downtown area.

HCMC’s first metro line was supposed to have been completed last year, but financial administrations issues have pushed the deadline to 2021.

The Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro or Metro Line 1 will run 20 kilometers (12 miles) through the city's 1, 2, 9, Binh Thanh and Thu Duc districts, and the neighboring Binh Duong Province's Di An District.