High Speed Rail network KTX – Korea

In 2004, South Korea inaugurated its first High Speed Rail line, one of SYSTRA’s biggest high-speed line projects. Since then, the country has built up a complete network, again with the help of the Group, which opened a subsidiary there in 2012.

MORE THAN 25 YEARS OF ASSIGNMENTS

After the Seoul – Daegu line, which represents Phase 1 of the KTX project and began in 1989, the teams continued to work on the project until mid-2006, updating maintenance documents, and some of them switched to preparing the construction of the Goyang maintenance workshop until the end of 2009.

In parallel, SYSTRA was a stakeholder in Phase 2, as part of the KDBC (Korea Daegu Busan Consortium) for the Daegu – Busan section from 2002 to 2010, then project manager for the Honam Line, from preliminary studies to testing and commissioning, from 2007 to 2015. This second line will serve the south-west of the country, with 70% new track and a high proportion of engineering structures (49km of tunnels and 112 km of viaducts for 182km of HSL).

AN IMPRESSIVE INCREASE IN RIDERSHIP

20 years after its launch, the Korean HSR network, known as KTX for Korea Train eXpress, has carried more than a billion passengers. The milestone was passed on August 30, 2023, and by April 1, 2024, the operator Korail estimates that a total of 1.05 billion passengers will have used the lines. This means that with a population of 50 million, every Korean has already taken the KTX more than 20 times! Annual passenger numbers reached 84 million in 2023, compared with just 20 million in 2004.