The Super Rapid Train (SRT) between Suseo, Gyeonggi Province and Busan was inaugurated on Dec. 9. The line will compete with KTX, the existing high-speed railroad, for passengers for the first time in the country’s 117 years of railroad transport history.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said the 61.1-kilometer SRT between Suseo Station in southern Seoul and Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, kicked off. After passing Pyeongtaek, the train will share rails with KTX. It will run between Suseo and Busan 80 times a day, Suseo and Gwangju-Songjeong 22 times, and Suseo and Mokpo 18 times. The fare will be 52,600 won to reach Busan, 40,700 won to Gwangju-Songjeong and 46,500 won to Mokpo. It is on average 10 percent cheaper than the KTX.

The SRT is expected to benefit residents of southern Seoul and southeastern Gyeonggi Province as they can catch the high-speed train near their homes instead of going north to Seoul Station or Yongsan Station where the KTX starts. It takes 133 minutes from Suseo to Busan and 127 minutes to Mokpo. It is also expected to increase the number of high-speed train users as the total operation, including both SRT and KTX, will be expanded by around 43 percent on weekends.

Around 43,000 passengers are expected to use Suseo Station daily by 2026, according to SR, the operator of the SRT.

It would only take 14 minutes for an SRT to reach Dongtan Station, some 40 kilometers south of Seoul, and two hours and 21 minutes to get to Busan. That's about eight minutes faster than the KTX Seoul-Busan line. While South Korea's first high-speed line, the Gyeongbu High Speed Railway (Gyeongbu HSR) was under construction between Seoul and Busan, the government considered a second line from Seoul to Mokpo, the Honam High Speed Railway (Honam HSR). 

The first feasibility study in 2003 came to the conclusion that the construction of a full line is not justified by demand, and proposed a two-stage construction. The first stage, originally planned to be realized by 2015, would involve two branches from the Gyeongbu HSR, one of which would lead to a second Seoul terminus at Suseo in the southeast part of the city. However, in plans made official in August 2006, the Suseo branch was no longer included.

The Suseo branch was re-launched as a separate project on June 1, 2008, the Metropolitan Area High Speed Railway (initially the Suseo High Speed Railway) to improve traffic connections to two new housing development areas situated along the line in Dongtan.

In phases to be completed in 2016, the company planned to expand the Suseo KTX into an organization consisting of three divisions and 430 workers. Kim Bok-hwan, former corporate affairs chief at KORAIL, was named the first CEO.

About 160 billion won was poured into the Suseo KTX project. Of this year’s 80 billion won, 41 percent will come from KORAIL, with 59 percent from public funds such as the National Pension Service.

This year the company said it will focus on preparation work, including securing more funding, planning operation schedules, building computer networks and making orders for new trains. Preliminary plans foresaw a 60.7 km (37.7 mi) long line from Suseo to the junction with the Gyeongbu HSR near Pyeongtaek, and three new KTX stations at Suseo, Dongtan and Pyeongtaek, with the last one situated after the junction on the Gyeongbu HSR. The line was to run in a tunnel at a depth of 50 m (160 ft) between Suseo and Dongtan, and construction with a budget of 4.18 trillion South Korean won was foreseen to be complete in 2015. The travel time from Suseo to Dongtan was foreseen to be 12 minutes.

A map of the SRT Line connecting Busan and Mokpo, South Jeolla Province.(Photos: SRT)