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On the event of the 1st anniversary of the KTX operation, KRRI cohosted
a commemorative ceremony with Korean Railroad at Lotte Hotel on April
8. Under the major theme of "KTX operation for the past year and the
future of the Korean railroad", the international event attracted as many
as 200 rail experts who had a heated discussion at the seminar in a bid
to set directions toward the future of the railroad industry.
Yamada Hideyuki, principle consultant of Nomura Research Institute in
Japan commenced the event with his presentation titled "Shinkansen
effects on regional economy' where he underlined that the bullet train
does not guarantee regional developments, on the contrary "it could
bring about economic ebb of a town given the Straw Effect kicks in (high
speed train reduces journey time and functions of small cities get
absorbed into big ones)", he added. As an exemplary case, he compared
two cities of Kagoshima Prefecture and Kumamoto Prefecture in which
both GDP figures stand similar.
Korea went through a spitting image of the case as Dr. Mun-Ku Huh with
Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade proved in his speech
titled "KTX and regional economy". "While industry-condensed cities with
mega economy ended up cutting down on costs of logistics, other
regions failed to get benefits." he stressed.
Chun-Seh Lee, High speed rail project team leader of Korean Railroad
described their plan to set up a rail network aimed at two hour travel time
for any destination in the nation by the year 2020 when he spoke on
"achievement of KTX and future plans." According to the plan, the 2nd
phase of rail construction will be complete by year 2010 down to Busan
and build exclusive rails for Honam line by 2015 envisioning the
construction of the so called "Iron silk road".
On the system stability and technology of KTX, Dr. Kyung-Yeol Chung
with Korea Institute of Industrial Technology reiterated the importance of
forming a special organization for maintenance check-up and overall
control of the system.
Dr. Kang-Yun Choi with Korea Railroad Research Institute described the
efforts KRRI has been making for smooth operation of KTX including
technical consultation. He also promoted some of the projects going on
of the institute; HSR-350x, Light rail transit and Tilting train express.
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