Korea Train Express
| Korea Train Express | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Korean Name | |||
| Revised Romanization | Gosok Cheoldo | ||
| McCune-Reischauer | |||
| Hangul | 고속 철도 | ||
| Hanja | 高速鐵道 | ||
Korea Train Express (KTX) is South Korea's high speed train system. Technologically, the train is heavily based on the French TGV system, and features a maximum speed of 300 km/h.
After 12 years of construction, the first sections of the system connecting Seoul to Busan via Daejeon and Daegu and Seoul to Mokpo opened on March 31, 2004. Using high-speed track for only a part of the distance, the new line cuts travel time between Seoul and Busan from 260 minutes to 160 minutes; a further improvement to 116 minutes is expected in 2010, when the train shifts to run fully on high-speed tracks.
Construction of the second phase linking Daegu and Gyeongju to Busan started in June 2002. A line to Gangneung is under consideration.
46 trains will be built in all: twelve in France by Alstom, the remaining in South Korea by local manufacturers. The tracks were built with the technical help of SNCF technicians.
See also
External link
- Korea Train eXpress (http://ktx.korail.go.kr/eng/)
fr:Korea Train Express ja:KTX