New High Speed Rail

[Anchor Lead]

The Suseo High Speed Railway debuted on December 9. Its debut has opened a new chapter in the history of the Korean railway industry, with KORAIL no longer dominating the domestic market.

[Pkg]

The Suseo High Speed Railway, also known as the Suseo Rapid Train, cost 2.7 billion dollars to build. It has finally debuted after five years and seven months of construction. The SRT departs from Suseo Station, passes by Dongtan and Jije stations located on its exclusive line, and meets the existing Gyeongbu High Speed Railway at Pyeongtaek Station.

[Soundbite] Lee Su-hyung(Korea Rail Network Authority) : "From now on, residents in Seoul's Gangnam and Gangbuk areas, as well as the southeastern part of Gyeonggi-do Prov., such as Pyeongtaek and Dongtan, can have easy access to bullet train services."

It takes just two hours and nine minutes to reach Busan from Seoul, as the new railway can reach speeds of up to 300 km/h. The expansion of high speed railway services to the eastern and southern parts of the Seoul metropolitan area is expected to provide residents with greater access to public transportation. The debut of the SRT, which is run by a private company, marks the end of the KORAIL monopoly in the domestic railway market, triggering competition in terms of fees and service quality.

[Soundbite] Kang Kil-hyun(SR Co., Ltd.) : "The SRT is ten minutes faster, more than 10 percent cheaper and offers more than ten kinds of differentiated services."

By 2026, the average number of daily SRT passengers at Suseo Station is expected to surpass 43,000, equivalent to 50 percent of the passengers using Seoul Station.