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Between 1980 and 1996, passenger travel increased 2.3 times, from 9,518
million passengers to 30,610 million passengers, growing by an average of 7.6% a
year. Passenger-km has increased 2.2 times during this period, from 92,195
million passenger-km to 203, 410 million passenger-km.
Road passenger travel accounts for the largest share in terms of passengers
(92.4%) and passenger-km (74.8%). Subway and air passenger travel showed
this highest growth rate during this period. Subway passenger travel
increased 22.6 times and its share of total passenger travel increased from 0.7%
in 1980 to 4.8% in 1996. Air passenger travel increased 15.9 times,
although its share is about 0.1% of total passenger travel. Rail passenger
travel also increased 1.9 times. However its share in total passenger
travel has continuously decreased, from 4.5% to 2.7% during the same period.
Auto passenger travel rose 22.8 times during this same period and its share
in road passenger travel also rapidly increased from 5.3% in 1980 to 38.6% in
1996. The share of commercial and private buses has continuously
decreased, however, from 73,5% to 43.8%, although it still accounts for the
largest share in road passenger travel.
International passenger traffic grew much faster than domestic passenger
traffic. Between 1980 and 1996, international passenger travel increased
5.6 times from 2,963 thousand passengers to 16,515 thousand passengers.
International passenger-km increased 6.7 times, from 10,520 million passenger-km
to 70.688 passenger-km. Air passenger travel accounts for the largest
share in terms of passenger travel (96.8%) and passenger-km (99.7%).
Freight traffic has grown substantially. Between 1980
and 1996, total tonnage increased 5.8 times, from 373 million tons to 2,174
million tons. Likewise, ton-km increased 4.1 times, from 27,797 million
ton-km when noncommercial trucking is included. The share of tonnage
carried by noncommercial trucks has increased substantially while the share by
commercial trucks has correspondingly decreased. Both account for 91% of
the total toad transport tonnage, and 47.9% of total ton-km between 1980 and
1996. By contrast, the rail share of tonnage fell dramatically from 13.1%
to 2.5%. Coastal shipping accounts for 6.5% of total tonnage and 40.6% of total
ton-km. Domestic air cargo, however, showed the highest growth rate.
Domestic air cargo tonnage increased 27.5 times and its ton-km increased 26.2
times. Nevertheless, this figure will represent a minuscule share of total
tonnage adn ton-km.
International freight traffic has steadily grown.
Between 1980 and 1996, total tonnage increased 4.7 times, from 94 million tons
to 443 million tons; ton-km increased 5.7 times from 626,621 million ton-km to
3,584,788 million ton-km. Oceangoing shipping accounts for the largest
share in terms of tonnage (99.7%) and ton-km (99.7%).
With the continuing rise in income and living standards, the
growth in residential suburbs and the development of car manufacturing industry,
motor vehicle registration nationwide has increased 18.1 times, from 527,729 in
1980 to 9.553.062 in 1996. The passenger car ownership increased 27.7
times since 1980, from 249.102 to 6,893,633 in 1996. This figure reflects
an increase of an average 23.1% per year.
The road system, which handles more than 90% of the country's
transportation, has been intimately connected to Korea's rapid economic growth
and land development since the 1960s when it began to expand dramatically.
Between 1970 and 1986, the total length of roads has doubled, from 40,244.3 km
to 82,342.4 km.
Presently, the express highway system is the backbone of the
country's transportation system. As of December 1996, express highways
have expanded to 20 routes, totaling 1,885 km.
The national road system was established in order to
facilitate communication between traffic demand regions, such as large cities,
ports, airports and industrial sites. The national road system has
expanded to 12,464 km at the end of 1996. In addition to these roads,
there are special city roads in major cities as well as local (provincial, city
and country) roads which serve local traffic demand.
In preparation for the 21st century, the government is eagerly
pursuing a New Road Policy, with the goal of building a safe, convenient and
fast road system. To achieve this goal, the government plans to reduce the
travel time to just half a day between any points in the country by the early
2000s. The government also plans to reduce the access time to any road
network system from anywhere in the country to less than thirty minutes.
There will be seven north-south trunk routes and nine east-west trunk routes,
totaling 6,160 km.
As of 1996, the railroad system in Korea encompasses 61 routes
totaling 3,120.4 km. It plays an important role in intercity passenger and
freight transport. Since the 1980s, the railroad policy has focused on
double or quadruple tracking and electrification for the saturated
corridors. In 1996, the length of double-tracked and electrified railway
was 932.8 km and 576.6 km, respectively.
In order to relieve congestion in the current system of
intercity transportation, the Korean government decided in 1990 to construct a
high-speed railway between Seoul and Pusan (430.7 km). The construction of
the Kyongbu high-speed rail began in July 1992 and is scheduled for completion
by 2002.
The construction of the Honam high-speed railroad for the
Seoul- Mokp'o corridor (360 km), and the Dongso high-speed railroad for the
Seoul-Kangnung corridor (240 km), are also in the planning stage.
An estimated 99% of all export and import cargo is handled at
Korea's ports. These areas not only represent the core distribution arm of
the Korean economy where 99% of all export and import cargo is handled.
They are also the center of the logistics, waterfront industries, fisheries and
international trade sectors. As such, the coastal axis, which centers on
ports, is gaining attention as the new frontier of national land development.
The port of Pusan, located in the southern part on the Korean
Peninsula, is a principal gateway linking the Pacific Ocean to the continent of
Asia. The port, which enjoys 120 years of trading history, is a natural
deepwater harbor with only minor tidal ranges. The port of Pusan handles
about 43% of the nation's total export cargo and 95% of the total container
loads. The port of Pusan has three major container terminals.
The port of Inch-oon located on the midwestern coast of the
Korean Peninsula has contributed greatly to the development of national economy
and industries, known as the gateway to Seoul, the capital city of Korea.
The port is an artificial port with lockgate facilties which enable it to
overcome a tidal range of 10 meters.
The ports of Pusan and Kwangyang are being developed as
Korea's two principal container ports. With the development of the two
container ports, Korea's total container handling capacity will increase to 8
million TEUs by 2001, and reach almost 14 million TEUs by 2011.
To meet the rapidly increasing container traffic, two new
terminals, Pusan's fourth phase and Kwangyang's first phase, which house four
berths each are opened in 1998. It is predicted that Korea's container
handling capacity will still lag behind the maritime traffic demand of the 21st
century despite the continuous expansion of the Kwangyang terminals. Thus,
the Korean government has decided to develop a new container terminal near
Kadokto, about 25 km west of the existing Pusan port. This project will
provide 24 modern berth terminals. The construction for the first phase
began in late 1997, and the first 10 berth terminals will commence operations
before 2005. A special feature of this project is that, unlike other port
projects in Korea, the terminal will be developed and operated by the private
sector under the BTO (Build-Transfer-Operate) scheme.
In order to facilitate the flow of cargoes and information in
all areas of trade, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs & Fishery has been
operating the EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) system on a commercial basis
since July 1995. The EDI network (PORT-MIS) provides EDI services by
connecting government agencies, shipping companies, stevedoring companies,
trucking companies, forwarders, and terminals.
Since 1969, when KAL (Korean Air) was privatized, the Korean
civil aviation industry has developed very rapidly due to the successful growth
of the Korean economy and the active business of KAL.
Between 1970 and 1996, the air transport market in Korea has
expanded at an annual rate of 14.3% on the domestic routes and 21.8% on the
international routes (based on passenger-km).
As the demand for air transport has rapidly increased, the
civil aviation industry of Korea reached a landmark turning point in the late
1980s. In 1988, the Korean government deregulated the air transport
industry and licensed the second carrier AAR (Asiana Airlines). Currently,
the civil aviation industry of Korea had been maintained as a two-airline
system.
Inch'mon International Airport, currently under construction,
will serve as a hub airport. Geographically speaking, Inch'mon
International Airport is located in the center of Northeast Asia, from which
about 40 cities, each with more than 1 million inhabitants, are within a
three-hour flight distance of one another.
The first phase of construction, which began in November 1992,
is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2000. With a capacity of 27
million passengers per year, it will also handle 1.7 million tons of cargo
annually. After the completion of the final phase of construction in 2020,
the airport wil lbe able to handle 100 million passengers and 7.5 million tons
of cargo.
In addition to the construction of Inch'ron International
Airport, several plans are on the way to construct new airports, as well as to
expand existing facilities in order to satisfy the increasing demand for
domestic and international air travel.
Like other newly industrialized nations, Korea is facing
serious urban transportation problems, such as congestion and parking
difficulties, all of which have resulted from the increasing number of vehicles
on the road due to the rapid urbanization of Korea's cities.
To solve these problems, government policy has focused on
developing are more convenient public transport system. The subway system
will be expanded in the six largest cities, and urban railway networks
connecting the central city to its satellite cities will also be established.
Urban transportation policies in Korea are in a transitional
stage from supply-oriented policies to demand-oriented policies. Rather
than focus merely on investing in urban transportation facilities for the
automobile, most city governments are trying to improve their public
transportation services and introduce more TDM (Transportation Demand
Management) measures, in conjunction with continuous investments in the urban
highway networks.
To improve bus transportation service, an exclusive bus lane
system and the Smart-Card Fare Collection System have been introduced. To
effectively manage automobile traffic by passenger cars, various TDM measures
have also been implemented. For example, the congestion pricing was
introduced at the Namsan tunnels on-route to the CBD. The Traffic Impact
Tax is reduced by 50% for employers who implement a TDM program, such as a
car-pool. Flexible pricing on parking, which allows a higher parking price
in congested areas, was also implemented.
To increase the efficiency of transportation operations using
information technology, the Korean government has initiated efforts to implement
an Intelligent Transport System (ITS). The strategic plan for ITS
implementation was established in August 1996. As an initial effort to
implement ITS, the Freeway Management System (FTMS) was introduced in 1992 and
completed in 1995, covering 320 km of expressway networks.
The second
project invovles the testing of the real-time traffic control system in the
southern area of Seoul. The first large-scale, integrated operation test,
which includes operations tests of various ITS components such as ATMS, ATIS,
APTS and CVO, is also underway in the city of Kwach'won. The Ministry of
Construction and Transportation (MOCT), the City of Kwach'won and the National
Police Agency have all invested US $4.2 million in the project. The
private sector has provided matching funds of US $5 million and has been
involved in developing and implementing software and hardware for each system.
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H.O.P.E. (non-profit org) (International
Cooperation of Environmental Youth - Helping Our Polluted
Earth) Any advertisement you view helps save the
environment! Thanks!
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