Largely unused since abandonment of the railway during the later years of the Vietnam War, it was returned to a limited level of service in the 1990s with the reopening of a 7 km (4.3 mi) section of track leading to the nearby village of Trai Mat, operated as a tourist attraction.

Due to the difficulty of the mountainous terrain west of Sông Pha—where the Ngoan Muc Pass rose into the Central Highlands—construction proceeded slowly, requiring several rack railway sections and tunnels to be built.

The new station would follow the Art Deco style popular at the time, but would incorporate some characteristics of a Cao Nguyen communal house of Vietnam's Central Highlands, specifically with its high, steep roofs.

[3] In the 1990s, however, a 7 km (4.3 mi) section of the line between Da Lat railway station and the nearby village of Trại Mát was restored and returned to active use as a tourist attraction.

[6] Built in 1938, Da Lat railway station was designed in the Art Deco architectural style by French architects Moncet and Reveron, although it incorporates the high, pointed roofs characteristic of the Cao Nguyen communal buildings of ethnic minorities from Vietnam's Central Highlands.