diff --git a/dvc/remote/hdfs.py b/dvc/remote/hdfs.py
index ea13a176a..2506c0724 100644
--- a/dvc/remote/hdfs.py
+++ b/dvc/remote/hdfs.py
@@ -2,10 +2,12 @@ from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
 import os
 import re
+import io
 import getpass
 import posixpath
 import logging
 from subprocess import Popen, PIPE
+from contextlib import contextmanager, closing
 
 try:
     import pyarrow
@@ -139,6 +141,18 @@ class RemoteHDFS(RemoteBASE):
             with open(to_file, "wb+") as fobj:
                 hdfs.download(from_info.path, fobj)
 
+    @contextmanager
+    def open(self, path_info, mode="r", encoding=None):
+        assert mode in {"r", "rt", "rb"}
+
+        with self.hdfs(path_info) as hdfs, closing(
+            hdfs.open(path_info.path, mode="rb")
+        ) as fd:
+            if mode == "rb":
+                yield fd
+            else:
+                yield io.TextIOWrapper(fd, encoding=encoding)
+
     def list_cache_paths(self):
         if not self.exists(self.path_info):
             return []
diff --git a/dvc/remote/local/__init__.py b/dvc/remote/local/__init__.py
index 816cdaa2e..a201ba5bc 100644
--- a/dvc/remote/local/__init__.py
+++ b/dvc/remote/local/__init__.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ from copy import copy
 
 from dvc.scheme import Schemes
 from dvc.remote.local.slow_link_detection import slow_link_guard
-from dvc.utils.compat import str, fspath_py35
+from dvc.utils.compat import str, fspath_py35, open
 
 import os
 import stat
@@ -280,6 +280,10 @@ class RemoteLOCAL(RemoteBASE):
             name=name,
         )
 
+    def open(self, path_info, mode="r", encoding=None):
+        assert mode in {"r", "rt", "rb"}
+        return open(fspath_py35(path_info), mode=mode, encoding=encoding)
+
     def _group(self, checksum_infos, show_checksums=False):
         by_md5 = {}
 
diff --git a/dvc/remote/ssh/__init__.py b/dvc/remote/ssh/__init__.py
index 4202ba61a..fee5fd092 100644
--- a/dvc/remote/ssh/__init__.py
+++ b/dvc/remote/ssh/__init__.py
@@ -2,11 +2,13 @@ from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
 import errno
 import itertools
+import io
 import os
 import getpass
 import logging
 import threading
 from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
+from contextlib import contextmanager, closing
 
 from dvc.progress import ProgressCallback
 from dvc.utils import to_chunks
@@ -202,6 +204,18 @@ class RemoteSSH(RemoteBASE):
                 no_progress_bar=no_progress_bar,
             )
 
+    @contextmanager
+    def open(self, path_info, mode="r", encoding=None):
+        assert mode in {"r", "rt", "rb"}
+
+        with self.ssh(path_info) as ssh, closing(
+            ssh.sftp.file(path_info.path, mode="r")
+        ) as fd:
+            if mode == "rb":
+                yield fd
+            else:
+                yield io.TextIOWrapper(fd, encoding=encoding)
+
     def list_cache_paths(self):
         with self.ssh(self.path_info) as ssh:
             return list(ssh.walk_files(self.path_info.path))
diff --git a/tests/func/test_api.py b/tests/func/test_api.py
index afc71d9ec..adbeebb81 100644
--- a/tests/func/test_api.py
+++ b/tests/func/test_api.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ from dvc.main import main
 from dvc.path_info import URLInfo
 from dvc.remote.config import RemoteConfig
 from .test_data_cloud import (
+    get_local_url,
     _should_test_aws,
     get_aws_url,
     _should_test_gcp,
@@ -23,6 +24,11 @@ from .test_data_cloud import (
 
 
 # NOTE: staticmethod is only needed in Python 2
+class Local:
+    should_test = staticmethod(lambda: True)
+    get_url = staticmethod(get_local_url)
+
+
 class S3:
     should_test = staticmethod(_should_test_aws)
     get_url = staticmethod(get_aws_url)
@@ -53,7 +59,7 @@ class HDFS:
     get_url = staticmethod(get_hdfs_url)
 
 
-remote_params = [S3, GCP, Azure, OSS, SSH, HDFS]
+remote_params = [Local, S3, GCP, Azure, OSS, SSH, HDFS]
 
 
 @pytest.fixture