Wow! Thank you Reece for a very clear explanation of the situation in South Korea. One observatrion. In one respect the situation in South Korea is like Germany and France, and very unlike Japan. Korean CONVENTIONAL railways are built to standard gauge 1435 mm, and that enables high speed trains to run off the purpose built high speed lines onto the existing system. In Japan the conventional system is 1067 mm gauge.
@@theaveragejoe5781 Possibly. Best times are April-May, September - early Nov. They have well defined 4 seasons, so avoid Winter and Summer. Beautiful spring, beautiful autumn foliage.
Contrary to earlier comments - it's extremely impressive. I've been to SK twice now and I went on the KTX to Busan in March 24. As mentioned, much of the country is very hilly and requires extensive tunnels and viaducts for the high speed lines. Busan is one example - massively long tunnel brings the high speed trains right into the centre of the city. Only disadvantage is that you don't see any of the surrounding scenery on approach. The KTX EUM is also very impressive as a train. Thoroughly recommend visiting SK. Great vlog! 👍🇰🇷
5:16 that's because SR is a remnant of a failed dream of rail privatisation a la UK. The division of KNR as railway infrastructure manager and Korail as an operator was also done in the same vein. Even though SR is part of Korail the overhead of having 2 separate operators have caused Korail to bleed money (SR leases trains from Korail and contracts them for track maintenance), which in turn makes it look bad and became a point of blame by conservative governments to privatise the market even more.
0:44 Actually, South Koreans never consider their own country as a "fairly large country", since most of its neighborhoods are quite larger than itself😂
@anonymouslyopinionated656 Its bigger than Hungary, Portugal or Austria, more than double the size of Denmark and bigger than BelNeLux combined so by European standards of area it would be able to hold its own. If you are counting by population even more so, larger than Spain and almost matching Italy.
@@RMTransit We always consider ourselves as a tinyass country even divided in a half, so whether it is size or population, still feels awkward to be called like that 😂
7:00 The Jungang Line KTX connects with the Donghae Line to Busan and does not join in the middle. Also, the Central Inland Line does not connect to Gimcheon-Gumi Station, but joins the non-high-speed line at Gimcheon Station and then connects to the Southern Inland Line. Also, the Donghae Line KTX connecting Busan-Gyeongju-Pohang-Yeongdeok-Uljin-Gangneung-Sokcho is also missing.
I miss the spur to ICN. My husband used to live in Daejeon when we were dating, and it was super convenient to go from the plane straight onto KTX. Part of the issue is that the operating speed of the AREX line is only 110 kph. As such, the only speed advantage was avoiding a transfer at Seoul Station, but better frequency out of Seoul Station often meant that it was still way faster to connect. This is the same issue that plagues the "express" AREX service, which saves a whole 10 minutes... but has a 40-minute headway. With high-speed service increasingly dispersed through Suseo and Cheongnyangni, I get why they axed it.
In the case of the airport railroad, a project to increase the speed to 150 km/h and a project to directly connect Seoul Subway Line 9, which branches off at Gimpo Airport Station, to the airport railroad from Incheon Airport to the Gangnam area are being promoted.
@@RMTransit ICN Airport Line(AREX) has two options, "Express" and "All stop train"(same as basic subway) That's reason why called "Express". Just faster than "All stop train" haha
There were several problems. First, because of deficient traction substation capacity and signal system, trains couldn't run above 110 km/h (which will be still 150 km/h after the ongoing upgrade). Second, trains must have used either the interconnection between Gyeongui Main Line or Yongsan Line which suburban trains are using, but both lines are heavily congested; making impossible to put more trains (2018 Olympic situation was the special occasion). Lastly, after opening of Incheon Grand Bridge (E110), buses and cars are exploiting merit of the shortcut route -- so there wasn't a merit to use the ICN KTX service from passengers from other regions. There was a plan of Second Airport Railway (제2공항철도), which interconnects Yeongjong Island and Incheon Station to Suin Line (which will also be interconnected to the current high-speed network), but because of a long section across the strait between Yeongjong Island and Incheon, the plan was declined due to budget. Also, some remote regions, such as Busan or Daegu, (politically) are claiming that improving their regional airports to major international airports is more important than putting KTXs to ICN, making the plan more difficult to be realized.
Meanwhile in New Brunswick the Via rail trains have been speed limited to 50 km/h for a large section of track due to deteriorating conditions. Maybe I should move to a civilized country.
The governments of NB and NS should come together build tracks and lease it out to CN, VIA and other rail operators. BTW I think Canadians can stay in S. Korea for upto 6 months as a tourist.
Meanwhile in South Korea, 9:00AM-9:00PM shifts 6 days a week are mandatory, a few megacorporations own everything including your personal data, overtime doesn’t exist, and 85% of the population can’t afford a house. Oh, and you’re a second-class member of society unless you’re either ethnic Korean and have eligibility for citizenship, or wealthy enough to buy your way to power. But hey, at least there’s a faster train…
I'm Korean. I currently live in Vancouver. Most public transportation systems in Korea are run by state-owned companies, or the fare is set by the city government. The public transportation is clean, high quality, and affordable.
Fun fact: Hyundai Rotem has been building domestically made KTX models since KTX-Sancheon. This company also builds K2 Black Panther MBTs. Another fun(?) fact: The fastest way to trigger a Korean train enthusiast is to show the map on 3:22 and ask "What is Osong". The amount of Korean train lore you will hear might be longer than a KTX trip from Haengsin to Busan.
It made good sense for a sporting event, tho... with public transport you can crowd control better since you know the potential peak flow compare to the crunch crowd and traffic jam... There ain't enough parking for the motorheads in the whole damn universe.
I am in South Korea now and will be taking this train in a few weeks from Daegu to Busan - yes that's right - The Train to Busan - better get some life insurance!!
Before the pandemic I used to go to Korea every year during school breaks. I had the joy of taking the KTX to cities such as Busan, Gyeongju and Daegu.
Yeah, the GTX is really a system that will truly make Seoul world class. Chinese systems pretty much have no regional rail (though Guangzhou/Pearl River is currently building one), and the RER and Tokyo's regional rail cant run as fast as the GTX will
@@seonghyukhong2098 Elizabeth Line, which is greatly inspired by the Paris RER, runs at 95kph in the Crossrail sections, and 145 kph in the GWE sections (outer sections). The Tokaido main line and the Tohoku main line runs, both of which go through central Tokyo like Crossrail and the RER, run at similar speeds (80-130 kph iirc). The GTX should have an operating speed of 180 kph, a full 35 to 100kph faster, and will probably be able to maintain highee average speeds as well. So yeah, GTX seems to be a revolutionary project.
KTX-EUM is really turning out to be a popular service. Many towns, urban or rural, are vying for direct access to HSR. And since EUM operates at lower speeds towns have more justification in hosting a station. Also, the Donghae line is currently being constructed to connect the entire east coast with HSR. (We might actually have the closest HSR station to the sea, idk.) The southern coast is also being connected, but I think it will be a long time till we see a Mokpo-Busan direct service.
It's kinda funny going through some comments here since I can see where they're potentially from and the different attitudes and the way of explaining things. I was asking myself, what part of this system has been underrated to start with, but yeah, that's probably just because I'm just surrounded by people who've travelled a lot and everybody appreciated the HSR system in Korea or they've just never been on HSR in general. And yes, there are some issues, systematic and independent, but from my observations, I feel like they are pretty evident in multiple different HSR systems, of course, intensity might differ as always. What I also perceive is that most of the people out of this scene just take HSRs as fast trains and that's about it. Probably just my unpopular opinion, but idk what has been underrated to start with. That was just my pov. And yes, just like many enthusiasts here, I've been on multiple HSRs - but just because I've been living in many different countries. But yeah, I guess that makes sense considering where most of the viewers are potentially from. And I definitely agree with mitigating over-concentrated population in and around Seoul(just metro Seoul, not the capital region). I also think that'd be the entire(or substantial at least) point about HSR (and GTX that they're currently trying to pull). Of course, there's a lot more to the geodemographic situation there but it'd be worth trying that. The content itself is great btw and I'm enjoying the informative side of it for sure. Thanks to y'all and I wish y'all a nice day. I did NOT proofread this and I wrote this entire thing on my phone under some time pressure. So take a sip of your... coffee, juice, water, beer, soju or wine (or whatever you prefer) and go through this. Thanks.
Great video, as always. Just a wee comment on pronunciation: using the current romanization of Korean, a "u" is pronounced as the "oo" in a word like "moon". And "eo" is pronounced as one vowel sound, similar to the "u" in "but". So "Suseo" is not three syllables but two, and sounds more like "Soo-suh"; "Suncheon" sounds like "Soon-chun", not "Sun-chee-on". Anyway, brave attempt and thanks again for the informative video!
I find that Americans struggle with Korean vowel sounds. When I realised that the h-y in Hyundai was impossible for many to pronounce, I stopped thinking of them as lazy
The romanization is weird with "eo". It's the contrast of the 2 sounds /directions of A ㅏ and ㅓ. A is "ah" and EO is "aw". Suseo is pronounced soo-saw.
@@Secretlyanothername TBH, westerners struggles with CJK for that it's all tonal language vs their usual phonetic based languages. Same for CJK speakers for English, with some times difficulties pronouncing the Ls as Rs (English vs Engrish)
It's clear he didn't study the pronunciation beforehand, which makes it a bit irritating for us who do know how it's supposed to sound especially with so many Korean names in the script.
@@doujinflip I find it frustrating that you say this, because I did . . . Just because someone doesn't stick the landing doesn't mean they didn't try! I think most people do.
The most important role of HSR is, IMO, mitigating over-concentrations in urban areas. By connecting satellite cites with urban areas, satellite cites can be more valuable and attract people, which can mitigate population density. I've heard Soul is over populated and housing is not affordable especially for young people. Not every country has the privilege of owning HSR so it would be great if Korea can utilize HSR to improve their geodemographic situation.
The most significant problem of the current Korean high-speed (as well as semi-) network is insufficient supply. You should reserve trains before weeks, and if not, you can't make your schedule to be real. In other words, a number of gaps in infrastructure near Seoul are limiting capacity of operations as well as causing speed decrease. Although there are several efforts ongoing to get rid of the gaps, this problem wouldn't be solved until mid-2030s. The dream has been huge but not enough to be systematic. Other than this perspective, of course, the country has affordable yet well-covered HSR system.
@@PrograError There are two main points. First, tracks are saturated. Because track-sharing sections in inner Seoul are operated well over their capacity, railway operators cannot let more trains run on those lines. Second, budget schema has changed since the last decade, and that means railway operators cannot buy trains freely. They need to set up and design individual business plans for more trains and have to be approved by both the government and the parliament. Then, they are also required to choose the least costly trains by bidding. Because of this issue, recent train buying processes have been messed up, making overall supply insufficient.
You make it sound like its a constant problem. For 90% of the year, you can book a train to Busan from Seoul the day before. Same for most other cities i.e. Gwangju to Seoul. I've done it many times. Sometimes it gets saturated, and that's why they are quadruplicating Pyongtaek to Osong which will finish in 2027, not the 2030s.
@@Rtong98 Because delay was frequent before, timetable itself is now slower than before. For example, Seoul to Gyeongbu was originally intended for exact 2 hours, but nowadays, it is 2.5 hours. Likewise, the reason why most of trains are running less than 300 km/h is oversaturation of the lines -- however, superficially, it is on time because the schedule itself has been adapted to the situation.
@@GC-jx1eq Thank you, that's really interesting. It's the same in Sydney. I thought it was strange that its 2.5 hours when the original documents from the early 90s said 1.5 hours. With the new trains it will be 2 hours and 9 minutes though! So do we think the Pyeongtek-Osong quadruplication will help and got the normal running time down to 2 hours?
Always thought it would be cool if we could build on the existing relationship we have in Vancouver with Hyundai Rotem for the Canada Line to procure some of their other trains for developing regional and high speed rail in the region.
@@jameshansenbc Well in Canada, the problem is not only the train itself but also the railways. To operate a fairly-well high speed rail system, you have to build a dedicated railways with less curves so that the train goes smooth and stable.
Outside of the high speed rail, and as far back as the 1970s, licenced designs of many of the classic Alstom BB series locomotives were also built in South Korea. So turning to the French technology for the high speed rail was a natural choice.
Just to add to the "a rather mountaneous country" aspect: over 60% of the southern part (Daegu ~ Busan) part of the Gyeongbu HSR is bridges and tunnels. And the more recently built Suseo-Pyeongtaek HSR is 82% tunnels; it has a 50.3km continuous tunnel section near the terminus. Looking out the window and watching the train casually run through multiple 10+ km long tunnels is quite an experience. +) Small correction: Jungbu-Naeryuk line (btw this name literally means "Central Inland [region] line") will connect to Gimcheon station on the conventional line, not the Gimcheon-Gumi station on the HSR. Plans have changed.
Gyeongbu is short abbreviation of old name of Seoul Gyeongseong's "Geyong" plus Busan's "Bu." Honam is name of the region in the southwest, Jungang is actually Jung-ang (which means center), Seohae means west sea (seo - west, hae - sea), Donghae (dong - east, hae - sea), Gumi is little city north of Daegu. It is successful system but I'm not too sure how their HSR will generate their revenue as South Korea's population decreases. Great job, Reese.
Well the Koreans are smart people and just asked the French to build the trains and signals for them (a tested and proven system and then improved on it themselves). Plus HS1 is basically a TGV line as well
Thank you for making this video. To correct one thing, the Jungbunaeryuk Line railway connects to Gimcheon Station on the conventional Gyeongbu Line, not Gimcheon Gumi Station on the Gyeongbu Express Line.
The Honam high speed rail line branches off from Osong, not Cheonan closer to Seoul(that would've made the line straighter and less tracks to double) or Daejeon(larger city with lots of important government/research institutions). This was due to extreme pimpyism from the Osong/Chungbuk area. They first got a station in the Gyeongbu line threatening to blow up the tunnels if they didn't get one, and when the Honam line was being built strongly argued that their station needs to be serviced by both high speed lines.
......Pimpy-ism? Now that's a new one; the first search result was a Korean outlet (Straight News): _Pimpyism, which means "Please come to where I live," is also present in everyone. How great would it be if a money-making facility were to come to our neighborhood?_
@@RMTransitI wasn't pointing out an error, just wanted to make a remark about the ridiculousness of that station. It's a huge meme among transit enthusiasts here in Korea.
The coolest thing is the high frequencies of trains between seoul and busan. And it is kind of interesting, they have no restaurant on board since travel times are always pretty low, thus offering more seats on each train.
3:05 For reference, there is a train called KTX-CHEONG which is similar in design to KTX-EUM The difference between the two is that the EUM is a semi-high speed train with a top speed of 260 km/h, and the CHEONGYONG is a high speed train with a top speed of 320 km/h
Just a note since this seems to be a common error with a lot of videos about Korea. "eo", "eu", and "ae" in Korean romanizations are NOT dipthongs. "eo" is like the "o" in song. [ʌ̹] in IPA. "eu" is like the "u" in "uh" except further back your mouth. [ɯ] in IPA. And "ae" is like the "e" in "eh." [e̞] in IPA.
Just a small correction, the KTX-I isn't pronounced as KTX-Eye, but KTX-One. It's actually not an official name (the official name is just KTX), but it became a half-official moniker to differentiate from the later models, Sancheon, EUM, and Cheongryong. The KTX-I is also affectionately called "Shark" by Korean railfans, due to the nose of the train being designed after shark snouts.
I love your work😊 +Ktx cheongryong is now running in honam hoghspeed line and gyeongbu high speed line It is running by sequence coupling Soon cheongryong train will run in SRT line
During 20 years after KTX has launched, there has been gradual but big change in public transportation of Korea. Train and Aviation are competing regarding low fare and earlier reaching to destination. Bus lines have been shrink from long distance lines to short distance lines. But, KTX has a big limitation; there is no international line, but only domestic line.
I am 99% sure that the track through Daejeon and Daegu is fully high-speed designed for 350km/h. I have ridden it many times. If you look at the alignment of the tracks on Kakao Maps, you'll see the 100+ year old line running near it with way more bends than the KTX line which is almost completely straight. This segment is the longest part without stations I think so its definitely full speed.
KTX-I, KTX-Sancheon, KTX-Cheongryong is made for high speed lines (~300kph, i.e Gyeongbu High-Speed Railway Line and Honam High-Speed Railway Line etc). KTX-Eum is for semi-high speed lines (~250kph, Gyeonggang Line, Jungbunaeryuk Line etc). KTX-I, KTX-Sancheon has Concentrative Power Type Design. On the contrary KTX-Eum and KTX Cheongryong has Distributed Power Type. Distributed Power Type is more suitable for Korean railroad enviornment since KTX stops lots of station compared to European or US Conterpart. And also KTX-Eum and KTX Cheongryong is able to operate in both high staged platform and low staged platform. (KTX-I and KTX-Sancheon is made for low staged platform only afaik) Which makes possible to stop at subway station. (Probably screen door and signal system need to be exchanged for both subway and KTX though) Anyway Thanks for making video about Korean Trains!
there is not a single video that does a system wide breakdown of Valley Metro in Phoenix, an actively expanding light rail system with several massive construction project ongoing. I think there's some really good potential for a video on this topic
The key is easy mobility from home to destination. Trains need to be complimented by electric buses, trams, ebikes, cycling, walking, escooters and open green spaces. People needs to be able to walk or ride a bicycle to work, school or for fun. For longer travel train stations need to accommodate other modes of transportation by providing protected cycling lanes, electric bus routes, and places to lock and store bicycles, escooters and other modes of short distance travel. These are all parts of a transportation system that needs to work together to be successful.
Speaking of KTX, there was a joke about KTX during construction which could only be understood by native Chinese and Japanese speakers: Waterproof materials was misunderstood as "water-releasing" materials 😂 (Because Korea officially abandoned Chinese characters in the 1970s, but it caused a very serious problem on vocabularies with the exact same pronunciation...)
5:26 Is this a mistake or am I misinterpreting what you’ve said? The southern section of GTX-A opened a few months ago, but the GTX is something like 50m below ground. Is there tracksharing going on between in and the SRT somehow?
SRT is running 50km length tunnel called "Yulhyeon Tunnel", start at Suseo St and end at PyeongteakJije St. SRT use this tunnel first and GTX-A starts tracksharing at Suseo to Dongtan later. Since this tunnel is place under 50m, we need to go floor B6 to ride SRT or GTX-A in Dongtan Station.
lol south kr is tiny in area, especially if you consider all the mountainous regions, so infrastructuring our entire country was easy. The downside of having such good transit though is that it's accelerating urbanization even more. people in the countryside (everywhere that is not near seoul at this point) all rush to seoul with even easier and faster access day by day. unexpected problems rise from this: -people stop going to local hospitals but travel just a few hours to go to the country's biggeset hospitals in seoul, expecting better treatment (but guess what: the service is the same everywhere) -people focus finding jobs in Seoul for better pay and work-life balance because transit is so good (many people transit hours upon hours to get to workplaces in seoul from far far away) -the "money spenders" all flock to seoul for entertainment and leisure: they want to spend the best time for their money and rush to seoul and more and more fun things get built only in seoul -so the housing prices naturally explode around seoul because demands cannot meet needs (even with rushed, terrible and dangerous build qualities!!!) Sejong was supposed to lift the focus away from Seoul but that flopped because many reasons but that's another entire issue
What does it explain besides south Korean land being largely unsuitable for agriculture due to the mountains, while north Korea is a lot less mountainous and has much more farmland (Light-Grey on open street map means its farmland). Edit nevermind I was wrong, "light grey" just means we don't know what it is used for.
@@oPlazmaMC its very inefficient and unindustrialised agriculture and there is a constant fuel shortage in north korea that makes operating the few farm machines they do have difficult The poster above is wrong tho, north korea is not more suitable for farming than the south. The north has a harsher climate and the most substantial mountains on the korean peninsula. Jeolla province in south korea is the best farming land on the peninsula. That said, people in north korea shouldnt be starving and their government is awful.
> the world's move away from locomotive powered high speed rail Yeah I love the new EMU HSR trains for the 2 biggest European HSR networks Oh wait (just look at TGV M and Avril)
And both of them have valid excuses, one being bi-level (more complex to build as a multiple unit) and the other using low-floor trains (since I assume it's the Talgo trains, and in general also more complex to build than high-floor single level trains).
Korean bullet train system has too many stations to stay at.. it means, it barely has it's highest speed, though the train itself can take more. It's satisfying overall, except the certain problem. Another problem is, Korean train industry system is depend on only domestic market. You know very well China and Japan has huge domestic market which makes its system and technology competitive. It concludes into the countries try to build newest bullet train system, consider Chinese or Japanese system as their primary option. The biggest and strongest eats up all and even becomes more competitive based on plenty of experiences and R&D resources.
I think it would be great if we were to unify with North Korea. North Korea has good tourist resources such as Gaema Plateau, Wonsan, Cheonjiyeon Falls, Geumgangsan Mountain, and Baekdu Mountain Cheonji. As a Korean, I feel really sad.
Worth noting that KTX services have previously run through Seoul to Incheon, but were cut due to low ridership. (As someone who has gone from Busan to Incheon and missed the last connection in Seoul, this is frustrating.) Also, there has long been mooted a further extension from Mokpo to Jeju, allowing one of the world’s busiest passenger air routes to be served by HSR, but the local governor has been opposed to it. Finally there’s my my favourite pie in the sky idea, an undersea tunnel from Busan to Fukuoka, linking the KTX and Shinkansen networks and taking out another busy air corridor.
@@PrograError There is a rather obvious geopolitical reason that a Taiwan-China tunnel would currently be a non-starter. Not sure the same applies to SK-Jeju, or even SK-Japan (despite lingering grudges around the WWII occupation)
@@PrograError I’m no civil engineer, but the Jeju strait and rue relevant section of the Sea of Japan are both continental shelf, less than 200 metres depth, while the Ryfast tunnel goes down to 292m below. The Jeju tunnel could be routed without having an underwater section longer than the Channel Tunnel’s, and the Korea-Japan tunnel’s wouldn’t be much longer.
It is true that only some ktx-1 trains introduced in the late 1990s are tgv itself, and all other high-speed trains have been licensed product by Hyundai Rotem or produced by almost their own technology since 2002 so far. And since that early ktx-1 introduction case was related to the return of Korea's medieval cultural heritage with the French side, it was inevitable that France, the perpetrator who stole cultural assets, had to give numerous advantages over unlike German ICE and Japanese Sinkansen in competition for the introduction of trains
It is 10 years since I used the KTX, but I nipped over from Japan for a weekend (Busan-Seoul-Busan), and after using the Shinkansen extensively, I found the KTX to be a lot less comfortable - less foot space, less luggage space, generally more cramped. I sat at a window seat, and a large businessman sat in the aisle seat, and I was trapped for the whole journey! And the trolley people didn't stop at the carriage entrance and bow, then walk slowly up the aisle, but just rushed right up the carriage - I never got the chance to stop one! They had already disappeared. (Not really a major problem, tbf). On the plus side, it was cheaper, and a bit faster.
That may have been the case with the KTX-1, an early introduction and licensed train of the late '90s TGV that didn't care much about customer convenience. But the Sancheon (KTX-2), the much wider Eum, which have put a lot of effort into passenger convenience and comfort, and the KTX-Cheongryong, which is now in its final trial run, are all different from the old trains you complained of inconvenience, including in their ostensible form and in-house technology. Although that's will be the first-gen KTX of memories that you won't be able to board again in a few years
@@hazelnut3794 Yes, I'm sure I used an old version - can't remember the exact year, but it was at least ten years ago. Speed seemed to be the main thing - there was a big KPH display in every carriage.
@@blackbelt2000 Looking at my comment, I think I made a big deal about them rushing up the carriage without waiting to see if anyone wants anything! But yes, it is nice the see the trolley people on the Shinkansen stop at every carriage and bow - it is part of the charm of Japan. And they walk nice and slow and ask everyone if they want anything. They don't bow for me - they bow to the whole carriage!
@@LittleNalaTrolly services in KTX has been discontinued for a long time now(2017). Although the attendants bow now. Speaking from experience(I've been on ~20 KTX rides so far this year) it's almost a guaranteed experience when you're in first class. Some choose to do so for regular peasants (/s) as well
One of the more interesting things is the strong push for electrification in NK- over 80% of the network is electrified and they have even electrified a bunch of the narrow gauge.
@@keiming2277 Actually a large amount is old stock from Germany, NK also does produce its own locomotives as well, but production has never matched demand.
![Digital Circus Episode 4 [TRAILER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/abZtsmMUbJo/mqdefault.jpg)
Wow! Thank you Reece for a very clear explanation of the situation in South Korea. One observatrion. In one respect the situation in South Korea is like Germany and France, and very unlike Japan. Korean CONVENTIONAL railways are built to standard gauge 1435 mm, and that enables high speed trains to run off the purpose built high speed lines onto the existing system. In Japan the conventional system is 1067 mm gauge.
A 5 hour old comment while the video has been up a minute?
Forget the trains that is fast.
@@dennyroozeboom4795 I am a Patreon member of Reece's excellent channel. We get his videos a few hours before he releases them to the gneral public.
@@Fan652w That is excellent. When my fiscal situation changes RM transit is one of the channels I’d support.
And they put it to very good use, which is not always the case! All the upgrading etc is *very* interesting!
Don’t underestimate the Japanese rail system.
Love the design of the KTX-I, always fascinating to see the many variations of TGVs
Loved the KTX-III (latest) which is an independent design from the TGV but based on the technology with local improvements
It is very interesting for sure, and honestly it looks better than most "actual" TGVs!
KTX-1 was built with TGV's technology, but from KTX-II, it was partially independent of TGV and KTX-III had nothing to do with TGV.
정말 정확한 정보와 향후계획까지 영상에서 소개했네요! 한국인도 관심없는 사람은 모르는데 대단합니다! 정말 좋은 영상입니다! 구독!!!!!
SK seems so impressive along several dimensions. Really want to visit.
When it comes to social stuff theyre very backwards and it shows in the young women's "family founding boycott"
Do it. I've been 3 times. It's great!
@mkkm945 too hot right now?
@@theaveragejoe5781 Possibly. Best times are April-May, September - early Nov. They have well defined 4 seasons, so avoid Winter and Summer. Beautiful spring, beautiful autumn foliage.
@mkkm945 thanks
Contrary to earlier comments - it's extremely impressive. I've been to SK twice now and I went on the KTX to Busan in March 24. As mentioned, much of the country is very hilly and requires extensive tunnels and viaducts for the high speed lines. Busan is one example - massively long tunnel brings the high speed trains right into the centre of the city. Only disadvantage is that you don't see any of the surrounding scenery on approach. The KTX EUM is also very impressive as a train. Thoroughly recommend visiting SK. Great vlog! 👍🇰🇷
The EUM is awesome, especially because it has a unique look!
@@RMTransit And it's got the mobile charging pockets in front of you unlike the older TGV style KTX's. 🇰🇷👍
5:16 that's because SR is a remnant of a failed dream of rail privatisation a la UK. The division of KNR as railway infrastructure manager and Korail as an operator was also done in the same vein. Even though SR is part of Korail the overhead of having 2 separate operators have caused Korail to bleed money (SR leases trains from Korail and contracts them for track maintenance), which in turn makes it look bad and became a point of blame by conservative governments to privatise the market even more.
0:44 Actually, South Koreans never consider their own country as a "fairly large country", since most of its neighborhoods are quite larger than itself😂
that's becausei it isn't.. it's slightly below average... the video was inaccurate there
@anonymouslyopinionated656 Its bigger than Hungary, Portugal or Austria, more than double the size of Denmark and bigger than BelNeLux combined so by European standards of area it would be able to hold its own.
If you are counting by population even more so, larger than Spain and almost matching Italy.
@@anonymouslyopinionated656 who says I was talking about physical size? I was talking about population!
@@RMTransit We always consider ourselves as a tinyass country even divided in a half, so whether it is size or population, still feels awkward to be called like that 😂
@@RMTransit Thats true. We have almost 2x the population of Canada!
Surprisingly thorough! Thank you for introducing our country's high-speed rail services!
7:00 The Jungang Line KTX connects with the Donghae Line to Busan and does not join in the middle. Also, the Central Inland Line does not connect to Gimcheon-Gumi Station, but joins the non-high-speed line at Gimcheon Station and then connects to the Southern Inland Line.
Also, the Donghae Line KTX connecting Busan-Gyeongju-Pohang-Yeongdeok-Uljin-Gangneung-Sokcho is also missing.
What a magnificent video! Thank you for introducing my country's high speed railway!
I miss the spur to ICN. My husband used to live in Daejeon when we were dating, and it was super convenient to go from the plane straight onto KTX. Part of the issue is that the operating speed of the AREX line is only 110 kph. As such, the only speed advantage was avoiding a transfer at Seoul Station, but better frequency out of Seoul Station often meant that it was still way faster to connect. This is the same issue that plagues the "express" AREX service, which saves a whole 10 minutes... but has a 40-minute headway. With high-speed service increasingly dispersed through Suseo and Cheongnyangni, I get why they axed it.
Yeah, sort of surprising it only goes to 110 kph - thats rather slow for an "express"
In the case of the airport railroad, a project to increase the speed to 150 km/h and a project to directly connect Seoul Subway Line 9, which branches off at Gimpo Airport Station, to the airport railroad from Incheon Airport to the Gangnam area are being promoted.
@@RMTransit ICN Airport Line(AREX) has two options, "Express" and "All stop train"(same as basic subway)
That's reason why called "Express". Just faster than "All stop train" haha
i also imagine its faster and cheaper to change at gwangmyeong to the bus
There were several problems. First, because of deficient traction substation capacity and signal system, trains couldn't run above 110 km/h (which will be still 150 km/h after the ongoing upgrade). Second, trains must have used either the interconnection between Gyeongui Main Line or Yongsan Line which suburban trains are using, but both lines are heavily congested; making impossible to put more trains (2018 Olympic situation was the special occasion). Lastly, after opening of Incheon Grand Bridge (E110), buses and cars are exploiting merit of the shortcut route -- so there wasn't a merit to use the ICN KTX service from passengers from other regions. There was a plan of Second Airport Railway (제2공항철도), which interconnects Yeongjong Island and Incheon Station to Suin Line (which will also be interconnected to the current high-speed network), but because of a long section across the strait between Yeongjong Island and Incheon, the plan was declined due to budget. Also, some remote regions, such as Busan or Daegu, (politically) are claiming that improving their regional airports to major international airports is more important than putting KTXs to ICN, making the plan more difficult to be realized.
Meanwhile in New Brunswick the Via rail trains have been speed limited to 50 km/h for a large section of track due to deteriorating conditions. Maybe I should move to a civilized country.
But not South Korea. South Korea has one of the most toxic work environments in the world, much like Japan.
The governments of NB and NS should come together build tracks and lease it out to CN, VIA and other rail operators. BTW I think Canadians can stay in S. Korea for upto 6 months as a tourist.
Meanwhile in Calgary... VIA does not even connect to calgary... (at least we have the c-trains)
Call and Email your MP!
Meanwhile in South Korea, 9:00AM-9:00PM shifts 6 days a week are mandatory, a few megacorporations own everything including your personal data, overtime doesn’t exist, and 85% of the population can’t afford a house. Oh, and you’re a second-class member of society unless you’re either ethnic Korean and have eligibility for citizenship, or wealthy enough to buy your way to power.
But hey, at least there’s a faster train…
Loved the trains in Korea! I went during winter and to my surprise the seats were heated and felt great
I'm Korean. I currently live in Vancouver.
Most public transportation systems in Korea are run by state-owned companies, or the fare is set by the city government.
The public transportation is clean, high quality, and affordable.
Fun fact: Hyundai Rotem has been building domestically made KTX models since KTX-Sancheon. This company also builds K2 Black Panther MBTs.
Another fun(?) fact: The fastest way to trigger a Korean train enthusiast is to show the map on 3:22 and ask "What is Osong". The amount of Korean train lore you will hear might be longer than a KTX trip from Haengsin to Busan.
I remember they made a big deal about the train line to Pyongchang and encouraged everyone to use the train from Inchon airport, even athletes.
It made good sense for a sporting event, tho... with public transport you can crowd control better since you know the potential peak flow compare to the crunch crowd and traffic jam...
There ain't enough parking for the motorheads in the whole damn universe.
I am in South Korea now and will be taking this train in a few weeks from Daegu to Busan - yes that's right - The Train to Busan - better get some life insurance!!
Well, it's not control by freight companies like U.S.A.
like your humor😂
it's joke about movie , right?
I did Seoul to Busan, and I was furious because the wifi worked, and there were no zombies.
@@orpialee Yep - every time I mention I am taking the Train to Busan - I get a comment. Haha!
Thank you for mentioning Train to Busan! One of my favorite movies. Great Video, keep up the good work!
Before the pandemic I used to go to Korea every year during school breaks. I had the joy of taking the KTX to cities such as Busan, Gyeongju and Daegu.
Seoul also has the first higher-speed subway system (the GTX) as far as I know!
Yeah, the GTX is really a system that will truly make Seoul world class.
Chinese systems pretty much have no regional rail (though Guangzhou/Pearl River is currently building one), and the RER and Tokyo's regional rail cant run as fast as the GTX will
Hopefully he makes a video soon
I thought the first one is the Elizabeth?
@@seonghyukhong2098 Elizabeth Line, which is greatly inspired by the Paris RER, runs at 95kph in the Crossrail sections, and 145 kph in the GWE sections (outer sections). The Tokaido main line and the Tohoku main line runs, both of which go through central Tokyo like Crossrail and the RER, run at similar speeds (80-130 kph iirc).
The GTX should have an operating speed of 180 kph, a full 35 to 100kph faster, and will probably be able to maintain highee average speeds as well.
So yeah, GTX seems to be a revolutionary project.
@@illiiilli24601Not with 4tph peak services though
KTX-EUM is really turning out to be a popular service. Many towns, urban or rural, are vying for direct access to HSR. And since EUM operates at lower speeds towns have more justification in hosting a station.
Also, the Donghae line is currently being constructed to connect the entire east coast with HSR. (We might actually have the closest HSR station to the sea, idk.)
The southern coast is also being connected, but I think it will be a long time till we see a Mokpo-Busan direct service.
It's kinda funny going through some comments here since I can see where they're potentially from and the different attitudes and the way of explaining things. I was asking myself, what part of this system has been underrated to start with, but yeah, that's probably just because I'm just surrounded by people who've travelled a lot and everybody appreciated the HSR system in Korea or they've just never been on HSR in general. And yes, there are some issues, systematic and independent, but from my observations, I feel like they are pretty evident in multiple different HSR systems, of course, intensity might differ as always. What I also perceive is that most of the people out of this scene just take HSRs as fast trains and that's about it. Probably just my unpopular opinion, but idk what has been underrated to start with. That was just my pov. And yes, just like many enthusiasts here, I've been on multiple HSRs - but just because I've been living in many different countries. But yeah, I guess that makes sense considering where most of the viewers are potentially from.
And I definitely agree with mitigating over-concentrated population in and around Seoul(just metro Seoul, not the capital region). I also think that'd be the entire(or substantial at least) point about HSR (and GTX that they're currently trying to pull). Of course, there's a lot more to the geodemographic situation there but it'd be worth trying that.
The content itself is great btw and I'm enjoying the informative side of it for sure. Thanks to y'all and I wish y'all a nice day.
I did NOT proofread this and I wrote this entire thing on my phone under some time pressure. So take a sip of your... coffee, juice, water, beer, soju or wine (or whatever you prefer) and go through this. Thanks.
2:57
correction: 320kph. It will be upped to 400kph by 2028-2034. And that's just the beginning.
Great video, as always. Just a wee comment on pronunciation: using the current romanization of Korean, a "u" is pronounced as the "oo" in a word like "moon". And "eo" is pronounced as one vowel sound, similar to the "u" in "but". So "Suseo" is not three syllables but two, and sounds more like "Soo-suh"; "Suncheon" sounds like "Soon-chun", not "Sun-chee-on". Anyway, brave attempt and thanks again for the informative video!
I find that Americans struggle with Korean vowel sounds. When I realised that the h-y in Hyundai was impossible for many to pronounce, I stopped thinking of them as lazy
The romanization is weird with "eo". It's the contrast of the 2 sounds /directions of A ㅏ and ㅓ. A is "ah" and EO is "aw". Suseo is pronounced soo-saw.
@@Secretlyanothername TBH, westerners struggles with CJK for that it's all tonal language vs their usual phonetic based languages. Same for CJK speakers for English, with some times difficulties pronouncing the Ls as Rs (English vs Engrish)
It's clear he didn't study the pronunciation beforehand, which makes it a bit irritating for us who do know how it's supposed to sound especially with so many Korean names in the script.
@@doujinflip I find it frustrating that you say this, because I did . . . Just because someone doesn't stick the landing doesn't mean they didn't try! I think most people do.
The "eo" makes an aw sound, btw. Suseo is sue saw.
It's a great system. Just missing the all important Dandong-Pyongyang-Seoul link... ;-)
The most important role of HSR is, IMO, mitigating over-concentrations in urban areas.
By connecting satellite cites with urban areas, satellite cites can be more valuable and attract people, which can mitigate population density.
I've heard Soul is over populated and housing is not affordable especially for young people.
Not every country has the privilege of owning HSR so it would be great if Korea can utilize HSR to improve their geodemographic situation.
The most significant problem of the current Korean high-speed (as well as semi-) network is insufficient supply. You should reserve trains before weeks, and if not, you can't make your schedule to be real. In other words, a number of gaps in infrastructure near Seoul are limiting capacity of operations as well as causing speed decrease. Although there are several efforts ongoing to get rid of the gaps, this problem wouldn't be solved until mid-2030s. The dream has been huge but not enough to be systematic. Other than this perspective, of course, the country has affordable yet well-covered HSR system.
I'm guessing there's not enough trains vs the demand?
@@PrograError There are two main points. First, tracks are saturated. Because track-sharing sections in inner Seoul are operated well over their capacity, railway operators cannot let more trains run on those lines. Second, budget schema has changed since the last decade, and that means railway operators cannot buy trains freely. They need to set up and design individual business plans for more trains and have to be approved by both the government and the parliament. Then, they are also required to choose the least costly trains by bidding. Because of this issue, recent train buying processes have been messed up, making overall supply insufficient.
You make it sound like its a constant problem. For 90% of the year, you can book a train to Busan from Seoul the day before. Same for most other cities i.e. Gwangju to Seoul. I've done it many times. Sometimes it gets saturated, and that's why they are quadruplicating Pyongtaek to Osong which will finish in 2027, not the 2030s.
@@Rtong98 Because delay was frequent before, timetable itself is now slower than before. For example, Seoul to Gyeongbu was originally intended for exact 2 hours, but nowadays, it is 2.5 hours. Likewise, the reason why most of trains are running less than 300 km/h is oversaturation of the lines -- however, superficially, it is on time because the schedule itself has been adapted to the situation.
@@GC-jx1eq Thank you, that's really interesting. It's the same in Sydney.
I thought it was strange that its 2.5 hours when the original documents from the early 90s said 1.5 hours. With the new trains it will be 2 hours and 9 minutes though!
So do we think the Pyeongtek-Osong quadruplication will help and got the normal running time down to 2 hours?
Hey, RUclipsr...
Where do you get this information?
These are facts that even Koreans don't know at all...
Your information power is really great...
really like your work!
Always thought it would be cool if we could build on the existing relationship we have in Vancouver with Hyundai Rotem for the Canada Line to procure some of their other trains for developing regional and high speed rail in the region.
@@jameshansenbc Well in Canada, the problem is not only the train itself but also the railways. To operate a fairly-well high speed rail system, you have to build a dedicated railways with less curves so that the train goes smooth and stable.
You know it's a good day when rm transit uploads!
This is a superb video dissecting the extensive network of the Korean KTX which carries millions of passengers each year.
Outside of the high speed rail, and as far back as the 1970s, licenced designs of many of the classic Alstom BB series locomotives were also built in South Korea. So turning to the French technology for the high speed rail was a natural choice.
Just to add to the "a rather mountaneous country" aspect:
over 60% of the southern part (Daegu ~ Busan) part of the Gyeongbu HSR is bridges and tunnels.
And the more recently built Suseo-Pyeongtaek HSR is 82% tunnels; it has a 50.3km continuous tunnel section near the terminus.
Looking out the window and watching the train casually run through multiple 10+ km long tunnels is quite an experience.
+) Small correction:
Jungbu-Naeryuk line (btw this name literally means "Central Inland [region] line") will connect to Gimcheon station on the conventional line, not the Gimcheon-Gumi station on the HSR. Plans have changed.
Very interesting! Koreans seem to excel at anything they put their minds to 🎉
Gyeongbu is short abbreviation of old name of Seoul Gyeongseong's "Geyong" plus Busan's "Bu." Honam is name of the region in the southwest, Jungang is actually Jung-ang (which means center), Seohae means west sea (seo - west, hae - sea), Donghae (dong - east, hae - sea), Gumi is little city north of Daegu. It is successful system but I'm not too sure how their HSR will generate their revenue as South Korea's population decreases. Great job, Reese.
OMG i was wondering about the Korean high-speed railsystem and wondering why i couldn't find out much about it
They don't expand or sell trains crazy like China, Japan
Korea's East Costal Line will Open in December That Route will Operated ITX MAUM Intercity first
Also That Route is planned KTX too in few years later
GRATS TO 300K !
KTX is now independent from TGV. It’s solely made by Hyundai Rotem now and surprisingly Hyundai Rotem also builds tanks for the korean military lol
This is what the UK could do if they could still build technology
Well the Koreans are smart people and just asked the French to build the trains and signals for them (a tested and proven system and then improved on it themselves). Plus HS1 is basically a TGV line as well
Once again, a really good explainer. I would have appreciated some explanation of the train model used on SRT, though. Keep up the good work.
theyre identical to the ktx sancheon
Thank you for making this video. To correct one thing, the Jungbunaeryuk Line railway connects to Gimcheon Station on the conventional Gyeongbu Line, not Gimcheon Gumi Station on the Gyeongbu Express Line.
In fact, there's no mention of the KTX-Cheongryong (EMU-320's new name) that can be seen as a highlight at all?
The Honam high speed rail line branches off from Osong, not Cheonan closer to Seoul(that would've made the line straighter and less tracks to double) or Daejeon(larger city with lots of important government/research institutions). This was due to extreme pimpyism from the Osong/Chungbuk area. They first got a station in the Gyeongbu line threatening to blow up the tunnels if they didn't get one, and when the Honam line was being built strongly argued that their station needs to be serviced by both high speed lines.
......Pimpy-ism? Now that's a new one; the first search result was a Korean outlet (Straight News):
_Pimpyism, which means "Please come to where I live," is also present in everyone. How great would it be if a money-making facility were to come to our neighborhood?_
There is a note on screen that mentions it branches off from Osong..
@@RMTransitI wasn't pointing out an error, just wanted to make a remark about the ridiculousness of that station. It's a huge meme among transit enthusiasts here in Korea.
@@GojiMet86Perhaps a machine-/mistranslation of “PIMFYism-please in my front yard”
Although South Korea is a latecomer in high-speed rail, I hope it will achieve greater growth through its first export to Uzbekistan.
The coolest thing is the high frequencies of trains between seoul and busan. And it is kind of interesting, they have no restaurant on board since travel times are always pretty low, thus offering more seats on each train.
a video on the indonesian high speed rail and jakarta's rail network please!
3:05 For reference, there is a train called KTX-CHEONG which is similar in design to KTX-EUM The difference between the two is that the EUM is a semi-high speed train with a top speed of 260 km/h, and the CHEONGYONG is a high speed train with a top speed of 320 km/h
CHEONGYONG mean Blue Dragon. You can tell it KTX Blue Dragon
No matter what, they can't beat Mr Kim's luxury train and ICBM train 😏
there's a new train by hyundai rotem called KTX-Cheongryeong,the design pretty simillar with KTX Eum but it's more faster up to 320km\h for services😊
Just a note since this seems to be a common error with a lot of videos about Korea. "eo", "eu", and "ae" in Korean romanizations are NOT dipthongs.
"eo" is like the "o" in song. [ʌ̹] in IPA.
"eu" is like the "u" in "uh" except further back your mouth. [ɯ] in IPA.
And "ae" is like the "e" in "eh." [e̞] in IPA.
Just a small correction, the KTX-I isn't pronounced as KTX-Eye, but KTX-One. It's actually not an official name (the official name is just KTX), but it became a half-official moniker to differentiate from the later models, Sancheon, EUM, and Cheongryong. The KTX-I is also affectionately called "Shark" by Korean railfans, due to the nose of the train being designed after shark snouts.
5:13 took both the Italo and Frecciarossa recently, Italo's train was way better imo in terms of leg room and seating comfort.
05:54 its not pronunciated like 'jun-gang'.
it's jung-ang
I love your work😊
+Ktx cheongryong is now running in honam hoghspeed line and gyeongbu high speed line
It is running by sequence coupling
Soon cheongryong train will run in SRT line
독도를 한국영토로 표기한 지도를 사용해주셔서 감사합니다
In 2023 i used the ktx 4 times on holiday, but two times the delay was more that two ours 😮. But they are nice trains to travel with
@cheeta92 yep the problem of the current HSRs in Korea is that there are too many trains and too little tracks in holiday seasons
During 20 years after KTX has launched, there has been gradual but big change in public transportation of Korea. Train and Aviation are competing regarding low fare and earlier reaching to destination. Bus lines have been shrink from long distance lines to short distance lines.
But, KTX has a big limitation; there is no international line, but only domestic line.
Could you please do a video on dallas or dfw please
I am 99% sure that the track through Daejeon and Daegu is fully high-speed designed for 350km/h. I have ridden it many times. If you look at the alignment of the tracks on Kakao Maps, you'll see the 100+ year old line running near it with way more bends than the KTX line which is almost completely straight. This segment is the longest part without stations I think so its definitely full speed.
KTX-I, KTX-Sancheon, KTX-Cheongryong is made for high speed lines (~300kph, i.e Gyeongbu High-Speed Railway Line and Honam High-Speed Railway Line etc).
KTX-Eum is for semi-high speed lines (~250kph, Gyeonggang Line, Jungbunaeryuk Line etc).
KTX-I, KTX-Sancheon has Concentrative Power Type Design. On the contrary KTX-Eum and KTX Cheongryong has Distributed Power Type. Distributed Power Type is more suitable for Korean railroad enviornment since KTX stops lots of station compared to European or US Conterpart.
And also KTX-Eum and KTX Cheongryong is able to operate in both high staged platform and low staged platform. (KTX-I and KTX-Sancheon is made for low staged platform only afaik)
Which makes possible to stop at subway station. (Probably screen door and signal system need to be exchanged for both subway and KTX though)
Anyway Thanks for making video about Korean Trains!
there is not a single video that does a system wide breakdown of Valley Metro in Phoenix, an actively expanding light rail system with several massive construction project ongoing. I think there's some really good potential for a video on this topic
5:52 not jun-gang, but jung-ang
Korea has a great zombie movie and great high-speed rail. Come on California!
Can you explain indonesia transit system
As a South Korean, we cannot afford a national pride about speed. We need a smart compromise, optimization between speed and economy.
최고!!
Interesting Reece! What do you think of China's High Speed rail system?
300k subs! 🎉
The key is easy mobility from home to destination.
Trains need to be complimented by electric buses, trams, ebikes, cycling, walking, escooters and open green spaces.
People needs to be able to walk or ride a bicycle to work, school or for fun. For longer travel train stations need to accommodate other modes of transportation by providing protected cycling lanes, electric bus routes, and places to lock and store bicycles, escooters and other modes of short distance travel. These are all parts of a transportation system that needs to work together to be successful.
Speaking of KTX, there was a joke about KTX during construction which could only be understood by native Chinese and Japanese speakers:
Waterproof materials was misunderstood as "water-releasing" materials 😂
(Because Korea officially abandoned Chinese characters in the 1970s, but it caused a very serious problem on vocabularies with the exact same pronunciation...)
Glasgow video PLEASE!!!!!
I would love it if you made a video on the Merseyrail network in Merseyside.
5:26 Is this a mistake or am I misinterpreting what you’ve said? The southern section of GTX-A opened a few months ago, but the GTX is something like 50m below ground. Is there tracksharing going on between in and the SRT somehow?
SRT is running 50km length tunnel called "Yulhyeon Tunnel", start at Suseo St and end at PyeongteakJije St. SRT use this tunnel first and GTX-A starts tracksharing at Suseo to Dongtan later.
Since this tunnel is place under 50m, we need to go floor B6 to ride SRT or GTX-A in Dongtan Station.
@@porsche963 아 그렇군요! I took SRT just once but I was so late and running. I didn’t even notice it was underground 😅 알려주셔서 감사합니다~
lol south kr is tiny in area, especially if you consider all the mountainous regions, so infrastructuring our entire country was easy.
The downside of having such good transit though is that it's accelerating urbanization even more.
people in the countryside (everywhere that is not near seoul at this point) all rush to seoul with even easier and faster access day by day.
unexpected problems rise from this:
-people stop going to local hospitals but travel just a few hours to go to the country's biggeset hospitals in seoul, expecting better treatment (but guess what: the service is the same everywhere)
-people focus finding jobs in Seoul for better pay and work-life balance because transit is so good (many people transit hours upon hours to get to workplaces in seoul from far far away)
-the "money spenders" all flock to seoul for entertainment and leisure: they want to spend the best time for their money and rush to seoul and more and more fun things get built only in seoul
-so the housing prices naturally explode around seoul because demands cannot meet needs (even with rushed, terrible and dangerous build qualities!!!)
Sejong was supposed to lift the focus away from Seoul but that flopped because many reasons but that's another entire issue
Please make an explainer on adelaide!! I never hear about its train system
Nice Vizualization of the lines but where is the south coast HSR thats currently under construction?
Underrated? There's a whole movie centred around the KTX and how fast it can escape the zombie apocalypse: Train to Busan. ;)
You forgot Gyeongjeon line through Changwon-Masan-Jinju branches at Dongdaegu
Will he do a vid about destination blind design
look how odd the Osong station looks like. The people there threaten with terrorism to make KTX stop there.
@5:05 I thought the Korean empire ceased to exist from 1910?
The fact that North Korea above is just plain gray and South Korea is with forests all over explains a lot
What does it explain besides south Korean land being largely unsuitable for agriculture due to the mountains, while north Korea is a lot less mountainous and has much more farmland (Light-Grey on open street map means its farmland).
Edit nevermind I was wrong, "light grey" just means we don't know what it is used for.
@@thijmstickman8349 if it was all farmland why would the ppl be starving
@@oPlazmaMC its very inefficient and unindustrialised agriculture and there is a constant fuel shortage in north korea that makes operating the few farm machines they do have difficult
The poster above is wrong tho, north korea is not more suitable for farming than the south. The north has a harsher climate and the most substantial mountains on the korean peninsula. Jeolla province in south korea is the best farming land on the peninsula.
That said, people in north korea shouldnt be starving and their government is awful.
@@sergeykuzmichev8064 Thank you for explaining this so well, i couldn't have done it better, i also didnt't know about the fuel shortage.
@@sergeykuzmichev8064 ye that is true
> the world's move away from locomotive powered high speed rail
Yeah I love the new EMU HSR trains for the 2 biggest European HSR networks
Oh wait (just look at TGV M and Avril)
France and Spain aren't the world. The trend is clearly towards distributed-power units.
And both of them have valid excuses, one being bi-level (more complex to build as a multiple unit) and the other using low-floor trains (since I assume it's the Talgo trains, and in general also more complex to build than high-floor single level trains).
Fxcking cool
love the train to busan referance
Donghae line was missed
Korean bullet train system has too many stations to stay at.. it means, it barely has it's highest speed, though the train itself can take more. It's satisfying overall, except the certain problem. Another problem is, Korean train industry system is depend on only domestic market.
You know very well China and Japan has huge domestic market which makes its system and technology competitive. It concludes into the countries try to build newest bullet train system, consider Chinese or Japanese system as their primary option. The biggest and strongest eats up all and even becomes more competitive based on plenty of experiences and R&D resources.
I think it would be great if we were to unify with North Korea. North Korea has good tourist resources such as Gaema Plateau, Wonsan, Cheonjiyeon Falls, Geumgangsan Mountain, and Baekdu Mountain Cheonji. As a Korean, I feel really sad.
Am I crazy or was there not already a South Korea episode? Anyone else Mandela effecting this?
There's one about the Seoul metropolitan railway system
I guess this is possible in a civilized society but not in the US
French TGV, like their fighter jets, they will sell them if you have the money
Worth noting that KTX services have previously run through Seoul to Incheon, but were cut due to low ridership. (As someone who has gone from Busan to Incheon and missed the last connection in Seoul, this is frustrating.) Also, there has long been mooted a further extension from Mokpo to Jeju, allowing one of the world’s busiest passenger air routes to be served by HSR, but the local governor has been opposed to it. Finally there’s my my favourite pie in the sky idea, an undersea tunnel from Busan to Fukuoka, linking the KTX and Shinkansen networks and taking out another busy air corridor.
The undersea tunnel is pretty impossible, just like the one china planned for Taiwan...
@@PrograError There is a rather obvious geopolitical reason that a Taiwan-China tunnel would currently be a non-starter. Not sure the same applies to SK-Jeju, or even SK-Japan (despite lingering grudges around the WWII occupation)
@@h0m54r even outside of geopolitical reasons, it's too deep for tunnels, too long and crowded for bridge...
@@PrograError I’m no civil engineer, but the Jeju strait and rue relevant section of the Sea of Japan are both continental shelf, less than 200 metres depth, while the Ryfast tunnel goes down to 292m below. The Jeju tunnel could be routed without having an underwater section longer than the Channel Tunnel’s, and the Korea-Japan tunnel’s wouldn’t be much longer.
Suseo pronounced as ‘su-saw’, not ‘su-se-o’
KTX is the French TGV. The French came and implemented their TGV system in Koreea.
It is true that only some ktx-1 trains introduced in the late 1990s are tgv itself, and all other high-speed trains have been licensed product by Hyundai Rotem or produced by almost their own technology since 2002 so far. And since that early ktx-1 introduction case was related to the return of Korea's medieval cultural heritage with the French side, it was inevitable that France, the perpetrator who stole cultural assets, had to give numerous advantages over unlike German ICE and Japanese Sinkansen in competition for the introduction of trains
The French TGV in Korea are starting to disappear because they're getting replaced by the better ones made by pure Korean technology.
It is 10 years since I used the KTX, but I nipped over from Japan for a weekend (Busan-Seoul-Busan), and after using the Shinkansen extensively, I found the KTX to be a lot less comfortable - less foot space, less luggage space, generally more cramped. I sat at a window seat, and a large businessman sat in the aisle seat, and I was trapped for the whole journey!
And the trolley people didn't stop at the carriage entrance and bow, then walk slowly up the aisle, but just rushed right up the carriage - I never got the chance to stop one! They had already disappeared. (Not really a major problem, tbf).
On the plus side, it was cheaper, and a bit faster.
That may have been the case with the KTX-1, an early introduction and licensed train of the late '90s TGV that didn't care much about customer convenience. But the Sancheon (KTX-2), the much wider Eum, which have put a lot of effort into passenger convenience and comfort, and the KTX-Cheongryong, which is now in its final trial run, are all different from the old trains you complained of inconvenience, including in their ostensible form and in-house technology. Although that's will be the first-gen KTX of memories that you won't be able to board again in a few years
@@hazelnut3794
Yes, I'm sure I used an old version - can't remember the exact year, but it was at least ten years ago.
Speed seemed to be the main thing - there was a big KPH display in every carriage.
@@LittleNala lol, can't believe you made a deal about them not bowing. Sorry your majesty. Lolol
@@blackbelt2000
Looking at my comment, I think I made a big deal about them rushing up the carriage without waiting to see if anyone wants anything!
But yes, it is nice the see the trolley people on the Shinkansen stop at every carriage and bow - it is part of the charm of Japan. And they walk nice and slow and ask everyone if they want anything.
They don't bow for me - they bow to the whole carriage!
@@LittleNalaTrolly services in KTX has been discontinued for a long time now(2017). Although the attendants bow now. Speaking from experience(I've been on ~20 KTX rides so far this year) it's almost a guaranteed experience when you're in first class. Some choose to do so for regular peasants (/s) as well
1000th like! :D
Can you talk about North Korea next? They have less high-speed rail, but they still have very good transit network.
Import from China
heh
no need
One of the more interesting things is the strong push for electrification in NK- over 80% of the network is electrified and they have even electrified a bunch of the narrow gauge.
@@keiming2277 Actually a large amount is old stock from Germany, NK also does produce its own locomotives as well, but production has never matched demand.