Rep. Cho Hyun-yong, a member of the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport 

Committee, speaks at a parliamentary policy seminar on an inland High-speed Network at 

the National Assembly last June 24. (photos: courtesy of Rep. Cho Hyun-yong’s office)

The following are excerpts of an interview between NewsWorld and Rep. Cho Hyun-yong, a member of the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, in which he spoke of the policy direction of the Korean railway industry, the construction of railways in preparation of reunification, and his parliamentary priority. 

Rep. Cho Hyun-yong makes an inspection tour of a railway 

construction site in Hapcheon-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do.

Question:  Will you tell our readers about the policy direction of the Korean railroad industry and related legislation tasks?

Answer: The nation’s policies toward the Korean railroad industry diverge into four tasks. Our first policy priority is on advancing the establishment of a high-speed railway network connecting every part of the nation through intensive investments at the earliest possible date. The first action task involves the expansion of the Korea Train Express (KTX) railway network so that people can commute between major hubs of the nation. The existing lines need to be straightened or improved to transform them into high-speed ones. Great Train Express (GTX) lines need to be built so that commuting between metropolitan hub centers within a half hour can be realized. 

Second, railway authorities should offer customer-oriented services and enhance the competitiveness of the operation of the railway network. In this regard, the beneficiary areas of KTX services need to be expanded on top of improved transfer systems and the provision of intelligent vehicle and mobility services as well as the expansion of railway lines leading to ports and industrial complexes. The introduction of cost reduction regimes, the diversifying of profit sources, and the opening of the local transportation market should be required. 

Third, systematic and comprehensive ways to ensure safety by analyzing types of potential accidents should be established and put into practice. To this end, education, improvement of facilities, and vehicle maintenance and upkeep have to be reinforced, and safety certification and safety management regimes need to be set up.

Lastly, the Korean railway industry has to beef up its efforts to make inroads into foreign railway markets by upgrading the development of railway technologies to the levels of advanced countries and cultivating railway experts with a global competitive edge. To this end, granting the railway industry the status of a manufacturing industry, the expansion of export-driven R&D activities, acceleration of leading technology development, and a commercialization foundation should be pushed forward. 

I will attach my parliamentary focus on seeking to revise the Act on City Railways and other related laws so that policy tasks toward the advancement of the railway industry can be put into practice.

Rep. Cho talks about transportation policies with Minister of 

Land, Infrastructure and Transport Suh Seoung-hwan.

Q: Will you comment on railroad policy plans to prepare for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula?

A: Policies on the construction of an inter-Korean railway network toward the reunification are divided into two tasks. The first one is to connect the disrupted railway networks between the two Koreas and expand turnaround lines to transport long-haul freight between South and North Korea. The second one is about the realization of the so-called Railroad Silk Road linking the two Koreas and Europe via China and Russia. The policies are designed not only to cope with a rise in cargo movements between the two Koreas in the wake of the thawing of inter-Korean relations, but also to achieve the goal of making South Korea a logistics hub of Northeast Asia and a gateway leading to the Asian and European continents. 

In this regard, there are four task options. The first option is to build an X-type axis format for connecting the railway networks disrupted between the two Koreas: the Busan-Sinwuiju axis connecting the two points via Daegu, Seoul, Gaeseong, and Pyeongyang; and the Mokpo-Najin axis linking the two points via Seoul, Wonsan, and Hamheung. 

The second option is about the integration of operation systems of the two Koreas for the thawing of inter-Korean ties and the promotion of technology exchanges. 

The third option is to push for the inter-Korean railway networks’ linkage to such international railroads as the Trans-China Railway (TCR), the Trans-Manchurian Railway (TMR), and the Trans-Mongolia Railway (TMGR).

The last option is the expansion of the railroad lines in the Seoul metropolitan area, which are expected to have heavy bottlenecks in the wake of a surge in cargo utilizing the connected inter-Korean and international railway networks. 

The above policy task options should be seriously considered in a commissioned study into the 3rd national railway construction plan, which is to be launched this month. 

Rep. Cho speaks during a parliamentary interpellation of the government.

Q:  Will you tell us about the current combined length of the nation’s railway lines and future construction plans?

A:  The total length of the nation’s railway lines stands at 4,248.2 km — 368.5 km for high-speed lines, 3,669 km for ordinary railways, 157.6 km in metropolitan railway lines, 596.9 km in urban railway lines, and 61 km for airport railways. The combined cost of railway construction projects, to be implemented during the period between 2011 and 2020, is estimated to be 88 trillion won. Out of the total, 16 trillion won, including 8 trillion won from national coffers, has been set aside for three high-speed railway lines with a combined length of 332.8 km, including the Honam High-speed Railway Line, and the construction of 58 ordinary railway lines with a combined length of 2,854 km that will cost 46 trillion won, including 41 trillion won from national coffers. The ordinary railway line projects include the ongoing ones with a combined length of 1,828 km, including the Samryangjin-Jinju Line, 15 ordinary railway projects with a combined length of 410.9 km to be launched in the first half of this year, and nine projects with a combined length of 614.9 km, to break ground in the second half. 

Railway projects have far-reaching implications such as national integration, balanced regional development and expedited regional development, easing of traffic snarls in the Seoul metropolitan area, the realization of people’s welfare, and job creation. Railways account for a 26.7 percent share in handling transportation volumes, followed by road with a 72 percent share. Railway line construction projects, which now get under way or are planned, need to be connected with national trunk lines and the missing sections. The ongoing projects, confirmed to be economically feasible, need to be pushed as planned, but the ones with insufficient economic feasibility will have to be reconsidered. 

Q: Regional airports are now posting losses. What steps you believe are necessary to give a shot in the arm of the regional airports?

A: There are 14 airports in as many parts of the nation, except Incheon International Airport. Eleven regional airports, except Gimpo, Gimhae, and Jeju airports, have difficult times. The 11 airports are suffering from financial woes as their combined revenues account for less than five percent of those of Gimpo, Gimhae and Jeju airports. 

One of the major causes of the financial difficulties the regional airports experience is that they have insufficient transportation conditions, caused by geographical characteristics. Korea, not spacious in size, has not much flight demand since the nation has enough land transportation and land transformation infrastructure to make it a half-day living sphere. In Korea, flight is not a generalized transportation means unlike Europe. 

But the aviation market is one of the “blue-ocean” segments with a huge potential, so comprehensive support for the development of regional airports is essential in a long-term perspective.  Regional airport authorities should come up with ways of boosting their flight demand corresponding to their mission. They have to develop tourist products utilizing regional airports and explore short-haul aviation routes connecting regional airports. Regional airports need to implement their own profit-making businesses to differentiate themselves from others. Regional airports should be utilized as hubs to develop the domestic aviation industry by joining efforts to promote aircraft maintenance and the nurturing of pilots. 

Rep. Cho meets with students from Hapcheon Sangga Elementary School.

Q:  Will you elaborate on major parliamentary activities and priority projects in your constituency you will implement during this year?

A: One year and 10 months in office as a parliamentarian, I’ve endeavored to or will focus on serving and humbling myself. My political tenets of serving are not only to treat and respect every constituent as one of my family members, but also to make the constituency a native town in which they can lead happy lives. I’ll be willing to earnestly lend an ear to voices of the constituency, and I will be engaged in parliamentary activities as I initially pledged to walk along with the constituents. 

A project to construct the planned Nambu Inland High-Speed Line, which not only constituents in Uiryeong and Hapcheon but also residents in Gyeongsangnam-do have long cherished, is one of the public pledges President Park Geun-hye made during her presidential election campaign. The advancement of the project would not only expedite regional development and offer transportation convenience, it also would have such spillover effects as the yielding of 18.487 trillion won in production inducement effects and the creation of 144,612 jobs, according to a report for the 2nd national railway construction plan. 

A project to expand and pave National Road No. 79 connecting Gunbuk and Gaya is getting underway. If the traffic of the nearby expressway is snarled, the expansion of the national road could absorb increasing traffic amounts, playing a role to link the east and the west, as the Namhae Expressway does. Provincial Road No. 1011 between Gaya and Beopsu, now a two-lane one, needs to be expanded and paved to ease dangers of traffic accidents and congestion at Haman Interchange, thus reducing firms’ logistics costs and improving the local economy.

An industrial estate needs to be set up in the Yangjeon District of Hapcheon to give a shot in the arm to the local economy through job creation, an increase in tax revenues, and a boost to local finances through a rise in population.

Last but not least are the long-sought projects to build the Uiryeong Culture Center and a cultural gymnasium in honor of civilian volunteers who fought against Japanese invasions. They are designed to promote regional cultural development by preserving traditional culture and heritage as well as enhancing the quality of people’s life by satisfying people’s cultural demand.