International Railway Journal - July 2008 - (Page 30)

Korea Woojin enters light metro market W Computer-rendering of a two-car LRV being built for Busan & Gimhae Municipality. delivered by December 2010.” planned for 2011. The company is also The first of 100 KTX II cars for Korail working on a maglev peoplemover will be completed this year, ready for project at Incheon International Airport. testing on the Korean network early Three two-car trains will be delivered in next year. The first six trains are due for 2011. delivery by June 2009, with the remaining four following a year later. Challenge Lee is looking at the upcoming Lee is very keen to challenge the Brazilian high-speed project as the first current dominance of the three market opportunity to compete for such a difficulties. We will make every effort to leaders, Bombardier, Alstom and contract by offering KTX II, the first expand and find new markets through Siemens. He points to the recent entry Korean-designed high-speed train. Lee constant investment in R&D, such as into the market by the Chinese as an also has his sights on Turkey where he the next-generation urban railway indicator of competition becoming thinks KTX II has a chance. In the system, an environmentally-friendly fierce. “Each nation imposes strict longer term, Hyundai Rotem is urban LRT system, permanent magnet restrictions such as localisation, tariff developing its next-generation highsynchronous motors, and an unmanned barriers, and technology transfer to speed train. This will be a 400km/h signalling system. Finally, we will protect its own market,” says Lee. train with distributed power, and the foster the Korean railway business to “However, Hyundai Rotem will company hopes to have it ready by become one of the most prestigious continue to accelerate its expansion into 2013. industries.” IRJ the world railway market despite all the Despite all this activity abroad, Hyundai Rotem is not neglecting its home market: far from it. “Our city governments in Korea have finished plans for LRT projects to be implemented as public-private partnerships (PPP), which makes them very complicated as we have to find investors,” Lee says. These projects are more like light metro than tram schemes, and Seoul wants to build seven such lines. However, there seems to be little consensus regarding the technology to be adopted, as Lee explains. “Some cities want light metro linear-inductionmotor powered systems, while others prefer rubber-tyred vehicles, and Daegu wants a monorail.” In the meantime, Hyundai Rotem is building 25 two-car LRVs for Busan & Gimhae Municipality. Delivery of these Incheon International Airport will have a maglev peoplemover by 2011. aluminium-bodied vehicles is OOJIN, Korea, has completed the first train of a new design of fullyautomatic rubber-tyred light metro, originally developed by Korea Railroad Research Institute (KRRI), for a project in Busan. The train will start test running shortly, during which time it will achieve 50,000km before being delivered in October. Woojin is building a fleet of 17 sixcar trains for operation on a selfcontained 12.7km 14-station branch off Line 3 of the Busan metro. Woojin is responsible for system engineering for the electrical and mechanical part of the project, and is also supplying the signalling system, third-rail electrification, platform screen doors, and the maintenance system. The new line is scheduled to open at the end of 2010. It is designed to transport 18,000 passengers/h/ direction. 30 IRJ July 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of International Railway Journal - July 2008

International Railway Journal - July 2008 Contents This Month News Transit News Market News/Technology News News Analysis Conference Report Korean Railways Face a Bright Future Korean Exports Surge Ahead Ready to Roll in China Velaro Shows Eastern Promise Are You Sitting Comfortably? Compin Meets New Challenges The Fabric of Society Grinding Out a Result Rendezvous Full Contact List The Last Word

International Railway Journal - July 2008

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