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Transportation in Korea


 


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%).


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Passenger Transport Trends


Freight Transport

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%).

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TRANSPORT SYSTEMS AND POLICIES

Roads

DSC00292 copy.JPG (255356 bytes)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.

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Railroads

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.

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Shipping and Ports

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.

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Civil Aviation and Airports

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.

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Alleviation of urban transport problems

IMG_0290 copy.JPG (104564 bytes)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.

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Information Technologies in Transportation

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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