‘Speed Revolution’ of KTX Changes Korea

KTX debuted last year April, the bullet trains have been rapidly changing the Korean society with the speed revolution of 300 kilometers per hour. Connecting the whole country in just two hours, the KTX has presented a new transportation paradigm.
The KTX has also contributed to upgrading Korea's railway operation technologies by several notches. In addition, the KTX is redrawing the Korean industry map as money and people are rushing into KTX station areas, which are often rising as the 'KTX Special Economic Zone'. The station areas are being developed into the hub cities of transportation and commerce.

KTX changes Korea

It's been a year that the Korea eXpress train, KTX started commercial services. During the last year, the Korean high-speed train has been rapidly changing the Korean society with its speed revolution of 300km/h. Connecting the whole country in just two hours, the KTX has presented a new transportation paradigm.
With only 142 days in operations, 10 million passengers used the KTX and in about nine months, the number reached 20 million, one of the most remarkable traffic records in the world's high-speed railway industry.
With 136 trains operated daily on average, the KTX trains have achieved a high rate of on-time performance at 98.9%, showing a stable condition in its early stage of operations. And Korail will operate KTX more than 38 trains from this November.
Even amid bad conditions in the domestic service sector last year caused by depressed economic situation, the bullet trains carried an average of 74,000 people per day and earned about 2.1 billion won every day. As consumer spending is showing signs of recovery this year, the number of KTX passengers has been notably rising. In October, this year, 85,000 passenger used the KTX daily, up 9 % from the same month of last year with daily revenue up 10% to 2.6 billion won.
Passengers will experience further KTX services improvements in 2005. For example, TV monitors in the cabins will be replaced with advanced 17-inch LCD monitors with wireless earphones. The train also offers new features including a breast-feeding room and additional hangers. In addition, KORAIL will also introduce a print-at-home ticketing service from this April, allowing KTX users to purchase tickets online and print them out before arriving at the station. This is a good example of Korea's power in the IT sector.
The KTX has also contributed to upgrading Korea's railway operation technology by several notches. Since the launch of the bullet train, Korea has been highly recognized for its stable operations in just a short period of time without any previous experience in operating middle highspeed trains which travel at between 200 and 300km/h.

KTX to Connect Korea to China and Paris

In the era of unlimited competition of the 21st century, the Korean Peninsula, taking advantage of its geographical location between China and Japan, has set a strategic goal of becoming the logistics hub in the Northeast Asian region. The KTX, combined with Incheon International Airport, which is taking concrete shape as the center of air transportation in Northeast Asia, is expected to reinforce the country's potential for achieving the goal.
The KTX has now opened the first chapter of the long-term master plan to establish the so called 'Iron Silkroad' that would connect Korea's major ports such as Busan Port and Gwangyang Port to China, Russia and European countries. Under the circumstances, Korail plans to expand inland logistics bases and container yards in time for the completion of its the second-phase high-speed line project between Dongdaegu and Busan in 2010. Along with this, Korail is also stepping up its efforts to build the information network linking railway logistics, customs clearance, trade and other related sectors.
When South and North Korean railways are restored, the Iron Silkroad project would be finally realized, and this will help Korea become the center of the triangle trade zone linking Europe, Russia and Northeast Asia.


TKR Opens the Era of Iron Silkroad

The railway restoration project between the two Koreas is very significant because it can not only lay the important foundation for future unification of the peninsula. It can also present a golden opportunity for Korea Railroad to extend to China, Russia and even to the European continent.
The Trans-Korean Railway(TKR) project began in July, 2000 when South and North Koreas agreed to restore the disconnected railways in their first ministerial-level talks. At present, most of the missing links in the west and east coast lines have been reconnected with opening scheduled for late this year.
The planned TKR is also expected to play a significant role in activating trade ties between the two Koreas thanks to reduced transportation time and cost, giving a boost to businesses in the Kaeseong Industrial Complex, located just north of the inter-Korean border, where South Korean entrepreneurs and North Korean workers are working together to manufacture products.
If the TKR is connected to the Far East and Europe, people can travel from Busan to Paris by train. The possible synergies gained from the TKR, KTX and Incheon International Airport, another symbol of Korea overseas, will make more concrete and feasible the government's conception of the logistics hub in the Northeast Asia region.

Korea's G7 High-Speed Train Reaches 350km/h

The HSR-350X(nickname ‘G7') prototype high-speed train built by Rotem, reached a speed of 352.4km/h in a test run between Cheonan and Shintanjin on Dec. 16, 2004, just a year and five months after the train was developed. With the achievement, the G7 has become the world's fourth high-speed test train that exceeds 350km/h after France, Germany and Japan.
As of the end of September, the G7, a progression of the KTX, completed the 112,000 km test run, and will run further 120,000 km this year before going into commercial production at the end of this year. The government will make a public bid in 2007 to choose a train type to be introduced on the electrified Honam Line in 2007. The six-car G7 is an all-Korean train, 92% designed by the Korean technology.