Railway in Korea

[Scot_in_korea]

Hi guys, new to the forum. So be gentle...
Born in Airdrie near Glasgow, currently living in Korea and have always had a big interest in railways. Feel free to ask me anything about the Korean railway.. I may not be the most knowledgeable about it but I will be able to find out the info.

My local "rural" station.

Local rail service

Newest members to the high speed fleet.

 

[nathanclass323]

Certainly looks like it's better in the South than the North

ie; Pyongyang Metro

 

[HST Power]

Welcome to the forums, some interesting photographs!

I'm curious to know how the class system works on the Korean Railway. Do they Standard/First as you do here, and what bonus provisions do you get for travelling in First?

 

[gordonthemoron]

and do trains travel on left or right?

 

[Scot_in_korea]

@HST power.. They have two class system like the UK however the only benefits are free access to wifi and bigger seats with extra leg room, free drinking water and newspapers. The price different is only around 10-15gbp. Interestingly some trains have a karaoke room.. Book that out for an hour and sing to your hearts content. A 3rd option is the standing option which would save you a 5-10gbp on a ticket.

@gordonthemoron The main trains drive on the left since the japanese who built the original rail drive on the left. The Subways and light rail systems drive on the right.

Nathanclass I would love to ride the pyongang subway but that is one country i don't want to go to.

 

[nathanclass323]

It'd be nice to be on the old German Subway Cars but I've heard it's not in great condition.

 

[Scot_in_korea]

Yeah, apparently only some stations are open. A lot of it fell into disrepair. It is mainly there as a bomb shelter. Same way some of the Seoul lines are quite deep

 

[jopsuk]

The KTX-1 stock always strikes me as reasonably specatcular- bascially Eurostar lenght TGVs, with full sized TGV carriages and no central split. 965 passengers ina single, single decker, high speed unit. From pictures the power cars appear to have couplers (behind nose doors) as with other TGV stock, but I guess like Eurotar this is just for yard shunting and for rescue.

 

[Scot_in_korea]

I went on a trip to Busan last weekend by KTX. Ended up watching this on the train http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fkE93gRx7c interesting documentary about the differences between tgv and ktx units plus how the KTX network was build.