South korean Rail

[connor7777]

My friend recently got back from Seoul, he told me about the great trains they have in that country, he used a company called The Korea train express, I've looked at them and their trains look well smart. With a max speed of 217mph.

Can't we use them in the UK, we are a develoed country. Other countries seem to have better rail systems than us.

Even North Korea has 67% electrified railway.

 

[stut]

KTX is basically a TGV, as is a Eurostar, which we do use in this country, albeit in a tiny section... I'd also argue that ROK is as developed a country as anywhere else!

We can use them (we have done - see the "White Rose" services that GNER ran) but we won't get the 300km/h without dedicated high-speed track. See the current discussion on HS2.

 

[jopsuk]

South Korea is half the area of the UK with almost as high a population. Economically, it's at a similar level to the UK. But they started building their rail infrastructure much, much later than we did. The KTX is very new, and only has a short network (barely longer than HS2 phase 1 is planned to be).

Whilst North Korea does indeed have a rail network, I'd bet that useage is probably quite low- travel is heavily discouraged.

 

[connor7777]

Well I suppose The south does have a connection with Japan, which might explain their great railway system.

 

[jopsuk]

Korea (both north and south) has a very rocky history with Japan; even today South Korea and Japan aren't exactly best of friends- this partly explains why they went to the French for high-speed rail technology when starting out (though they now develop their own).

You seem to be implying that South Korea is somehow backwards and needs help? It's one of the foremost technology driven economies.

 

[connor7777]

No I never said the south was backwards, they are more ahead than the UK and Ireland are.
A rail service between Seoul and Pyongyang would be great, a high speed one, unless that service already exists.

I like the look of Yonggwang station (North Korea), Pyongyang metro is the deepest in the world at 110metres down.

 

[jopsuk]

There are no services whatsoever between Seoul and Pyonyang. To travel between Seoul and Pyongyang involves going via Beijing, and I'm not even sure you can go directly there (by air) from the South. The two countries are, after all, in a state of ceasefire, but still pretty much at war- the ceasefire is fragile and occasionally broken to fatal effect. For any foreigner, including Chinese tourists, to visit North Korea takes a lot of a paper work to sort Visas, and then when you're in the country you get very little freedom to roam.

the grand and impressive buildings of the North have been built by starving, brutalised, peasentry.