Busan is good

New Faster Bullet Train to Reduce Travel Time to Busan

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Korea’s next generation bullet train will be capable of reaching 400 kilometers per hour, 100 kilometers per hour faster than the current Korean Train Express or KTX.

 

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation said it has mapped out a six-year development project for the faster train, dubbed the High-Speed Electric Multiple Unit-400 km/h Experiment, with the Ministry of Science and Technology.

 

Ministry officials said that the new train will have a more efficient electrical distribution system allowing it to reach the higher speed, while also increasing the number of carriages. A total of 76.5 billion won will be earmarked for the program.

 

The government also plans to double the daily capacity of the high-speed service to 155,282 from the 73,302 recorded in August 2005 with more trains on the Honam (Seoul-Mokpo) and Jeolla (Suncheon-Yeosu) lines.

 

``The development of updated technologies is essential amid global competition,’’ a ministry official said. Republic of Korea considers the high-speed train market one of its future growth industries.

 

The KTX has shortened the travel time from Seoul to the country’s second-largest city, Busan, to two hours and 40 minutes from the four-and-a-half hours taken by express Saemaul trains.

 

Travel time will be shortened even further to one hour and 45 minutes when the construction of a high-speed railway linking Busan and Daegu is completed perhaps in early 2007.

 

The construction of a bullet train railway linking Seoul and Jeolla Province will also be completed by 2017 with a groundbreaking ceremony expected to be held late this year or early 2007.

 

The Construction-Transportation Ministry estimates that the journey from Seoul to Mokpo, a port city in South Jeolla Province, will take less than 100 minutes with the current KTX speed of 300 kilometers per hour.

 

The source of news : The Korea Times, 07-27-2006