LEIPZIG, Germany ― Korea’s experience in building and operating its own bullet trains offers a model case for other countries to study, Vice Transport Minister Yeo Hyung-koo said in Germany.

“Countries well understand that investing in high-speed trains will contribute to their future growth. But they face challenges in earning widespread consensus from stakeholder groups,” he said in a recent interview with The Korea Herald.

“Korea, which has already undergone similar experiences over the past decade, could offer tips for them to learn.”

Yeo was attending the 2013 International Transport Forum that ended its three-day run on Friday in Leipzig, Germany. He introduced Korea’s experience in investing in high-speed rail during a closed ministers’ roundtable meeting Wednesday.

Even though trains used to be key transport means until the 1960s in Korea, their popularity has declined since the 1970s as the government sought rapid economic growth by building highways and nurturing the automotive industry.

The nation’s railway, however, started gaining recognition since the early 2000s with the introduction of the high-speed train KTX in 2004. Then in 2010, Korea became the fourth nation to build its own bullet train, the KTX-Sancheon.

More recently, researchers have been carrying out test-runs for the faster and bigger successor, HEMU-430. If its operation starts from 2015 as planned, it would cover the 450-kilometer stretch between Seoul and Busan in 90 minutes.

“Now the number of travelers using the KTX, which celebrates its ninth anniversary this year, has increased from 70,000 per day in the early days of introduction to the current 140,000,” he said. “Koreans seem to really appreciate value for time.”

One characteristic of Korea’s railway policy is that the government has been active in investing not just in high-speed trains but also in improving service quality of existing conventional trains.

“Other ministers showed especially keen interest in our government’s two-track funding policy that allocates budgets almost equally to bullet trains and conventional ones,” he said.

Having felt Korea was too limited a market for its advanced high-speed technology, the Korean government is now turning its eyes to overseas markets to promote and sell its experience.

“We have competitiveness in pricing and safety compared to other leading countries. We will step up efforts in sharing and finally exporting our technical and operational know-how,” he said.

Yeo also had several bilateral meetings with countries such as Russia and Canada on the sidelines of the annual OECD transport forum.

By Lee Ji-yoon, Korea Herald correspondent
(jylee@heraldcorp.com)