South Korea's first bullet train goes into service this week promising to transform people's lives by easing chronic traffic congestion.
After 14 trillion won (US$12 billion) of investment and years of delay caused by the 1997 Asian financial crisis and major engineering obstacles, the 300kmh train will open for business on Thursday on two lines linking Seoul to Busan in the southeast and Mokpo in the southwest.
PHOTO: AFP
The construction of the new rail system, dubbed Korea Train Express (KTX), is considered a seminal national event here, on a par with the completion of South Korea's first highway from Seoul to Busan, 428km south, in 1970.
Many more highways have been added since then, but road-building was overtaken by the number of vehicles in the intervening years, leaving South Korea's transport costs among the highest in the world.
Kim Se-Ho, head of the state-run Korean National Railroad (KNR), said KTX would bring about "revolutionary changes to logistics and people's lives."
"By mixing KTX with other means of transportation, you can reach anywhere in the country within a half day," he said of the French technology-based bullet train.
Lifestyles will improve as people abandon congested cities for the countryside in search of cheaper rent and clean air and residents in provincial cities will be able to shop and see art performances in Seoul, he said.
Commuters will take 49 minutes travelling by train between Seoul and Daejeon, some 160km south, while motorists sit behind the wheel for more than an hour to reach downtown from the outskirts of the capital.
KTX covers the whole 410km run from Seoul to Busan in 160 minutes although it has to slow down on old tracks used by conventional trains.
The fastest conventional train covers the same distance in 240 minutes.
When the old tracks yield to new railbeds in 2010, the travel time will be cut to 116 minutes.
In its first year of service, KTX is expected to carry 180,000 passengers per day, enabling the Korean National Railway to cut back on slower services to free up those trains for cargoes.
Experts said the costs of road traffic congestion in South Korea have been increasing 13.5 percent on average over the past 10 years to hit 22 trillion won in 2002.
It amounts to 3.7 percent of the country's total GDP.
"KTX is equal to four Seoul to Busan highways in terms of logistics capacity," Kim said, adding that KTX will save the country 1.85 trillion won in logistics cost next year alone.
Aside from logistical gains, the new railway system brought a leap forward to South Korea's railway technology.
KTX will operate 46 sets of trains, 12 imported directly from Alstom of France and 34 others were assembled here.
With technology transfer from Alstom, KNR has successfully developed its own model, the G7.
"We plan to increase G7's speed to 350 kilometers per hour," Kim said, adding that South Korea seeks to export this model.
KTX recently took a group of diplomats and journalists on a test driving to Daejeon. The sleek silver-grey and blue train hit 307km at one point but passengers reported slightly more rolling and noise than the France's TGV high-speed train.
Acting President Goh Kun expressed hope on Wednesday that KTX would help South Korea emerge as a railway hub on the "Iron Silk Road" linking Northeast Asia and the Pacific to Europe.
"My dream is to travel to Pyongyang and all the way across Siberia to Europe by this high-speed train," Kim said.
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about 1,900 as
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS