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THE HIGH SPEED
ARRIVES TO KOREA AT THE HANDS OF ALSTOM
The high speed works in
Korea. The 34.4 kilometres opened last December will be used as test on a line which,
in a few time, will be extended to 52 kilometres. This is the result of an intense
collaboration between Alstom and the Korean High Speed Rail Consortium (KHRC), the
civil works, the put on the rail, the installation of the catenary, the telecommunications,
the electrical resorts, therefore, the 12 trains made by the European company and
other 34 more which have been built in South Korea under Alstom's supervision. With
this opening, South Korea is the first Asiatic country which has Alstom's high speed
technology.
The KTX is based on the Alstom TGV trains.
The three next years will
be marked for a very quick progress of the project: the 61% of the work will be completed
during this year, the 80% on the year 2001 and the 91% at the end of the year 2002.
The commercial service in Seul and Taejon will start, as it was planned, on December,
2003. Since April of the year 2004, the trains KTX will work between Seul and Pusan,
the section between Taegu and Pusan will be used runing with the change in the electrification
of the current line.
To this new fast train, the KHRC (Korean High Speed Consortium) has installed in
Pugok (Korea) a driving simulator of the TGV called SIMKOR, tool used by the most
important high speed railway networks in the whole world. This system puts a person,
who is learning, on real situations which can take place during the driving, placed
at a similar compartment to the cabin of one of the trains, and who will react in
the same way as would do a train in a real situation to the engine driver's actions.
There is a instructor who coordinates the whole system and advices the engine drivers
before the different situations which can be found on the driving of the train with
these characteristics. A position screen placed out of the simulator allows other
engine drivers who are learning to follow his colleague, who is into the train, having
direct access to the information of the train and the instructor.
The KTX will be financed by public funds in a 45% (the 35% by direct tax and the
10% by credits) and the other 53% by KHRC (the 24% by foreign credits, the 29% by
bonds issue and a 2% by money from the private people). That project is organized
by the KTGVC (Korean TGV Consortium) made up of 12 members, whose head is the EUKORAIL,
company founded under the Korean laws for the project. Its duties are the representation
of its members before the KHRC, the organization of all the activities in Korea related
to the technical assistance on the following processes: the transfer of technology,
the supervision of the put in service and the assembly of the catenary, signing and
tests and implementation of all the systems and equipments, therefore the buying
of some units in Korea.
The contract includes a total
of 46 trains, 12 are constructed in France and the other 34 in the Asian country.
The transfer of technology for the production of rolling stock and associated technology
is made at the 100%. That transfer includes: the industrial planning, the design
and the development of the factories, solder process, production process, assambly
and tests. In the same way, have been transferred too the necessary documents to
the design, planes of methods, technical and quality specifications, service and
repairs.
The contract includes the study, the supplying, the supervision of the installations,
tests and implementation of the equipments belonging to the following systems: systems
of catenary (electricity supplying, contact wire of copper and suspension wire of
bronze), speed control (ATC systems and TVM 430 equipments similar to the ones used
to the TGV North and the Eurostar), electronic places (systems used to check the
circuits and installations and SSI equipments) and a control center (control center
of traffic placed at NAM station in Seul).
Into the work programme of the Korea TGV Consortium, the Associated services are
in charge of designing the general plan of service, of specifying the concrete tools
to get going it and warehouse of pieces of rolling stock, systems of catenary and
signing, therefore of the organization of the operations and training in service
to the personnel.
Alstom has an important quantity
of high speed trains in all the world. In France, it has the TGV Paris South-East
with 106 trains, the TGV Red Postal with three trains, the TGV Atlantique with 105
units, the TGV Red with 80 trains and the TGV Duplex with 42 units. In other countries,
circulate the THALYS (Great Britain, Belgium, Holland, Germany and France) with 16
trains, the Eurostar (Belgium, Great Britain and France) with 38 trains, the AVE
in Spain with 24 trains and the new KTX (South Korea) with 46 units. In numbers,
Alstom trains has 164,330 available seats only into the French railway fleet, 63,171
available seats into the trains of the international fleet, 4,702 waggons of passangers
and 902 engines.
This project started in 1973, date when it was begun to study the viability of the
project; but was on May,1989 when was decided to build the high speed line between
Seul and Pusan. Since that moment, started some processes which carried to open this
high speed network.
The similarity between TGV and AVE is obviously.
In Spain, Alstom shows some
alternatives facing the high speed project Madrid-Barcelone-French Frontier, network
where it could reach, on the test phase, the unbelievable speed of 360 km/h. Three
are the alternatives for this project:
TGV Duplex
(two decks).
It can carry a 40% more of
passangers than any other conventional high speed train with the same energy consumer,
thanks to its soft structure of aluminium which, complying with the most demanding
requeriments in security, it can readuce very much the cost of service and working.
A revolutionary model of the current AVE Madrid-Seville.
It incorporates systems of
active transverse suspension that will increase its important level of confort, but
at faster speeds.
TGV 400.
It was introduced to the international
press at the end of February, includes distributed and modular drive, of new development.
By the way, one of the three models will be designed and made completely in Spain
at the factories that Alstom has in Santa Perpetua de Mogoda (Barcelone) and Albuixech
(Valencia).
The European high speed railway network not only is a very important fact to the
social-economic development of the European Union, but moreover it is an important
step to the future into the building of a united Europe. The introduction of a railway
system with these characteristics in the XXIst century, without anydoubt, will offer
new opportunities in the whole world.
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