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.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS