By Lee Hyo-sik
The government said Tuesday that it will operate KTX bullet trains on existing railway lines to connect Incheon International Airport with PyeongChang and other 2018 Winter Olympics venues in Gangwon Province. The plan is to make it easier for athletes and other event participants to reach their final destinations upon arrival.
The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said it will improve the current tracks between Incheon International Airport and Wonju, Gangwon Province, to enable travel by high-speed train. New tracks exclusively for the bullet trains will be constructed to link Wonju with PyeongChang and Gangneung in eastern Gangwon Province ahead of the Olympics.
It denied some media reports that the government had promised to build all new tracks for KTX trains that would connect Incheon Airport with PyeongChang.
“It is not true,’’ said Koo Bon-hwan, the ministry’s director general for railroad policy. ``The PyeongChang 2018 Bid Committee never made such a promise either during the presentation in Durban, South Africa, in July last year. It just said it would make the best use of existing railroads and build a new track only between Wonju and PyeongChang to minimize construction costs.’’
There is no railroad presently connecting Wonju and Gangneung, and PyeongChang is located in between them.
Sohn Chang-hwan, senior manager at the bid committee’s facility management team, echoed Koo’s statement, stressing the committee never promised to build a new KTX track during its bidding campaign.
``We knew that constructing a new KTX line between Incheon Airport and PyeongChang would not be economically feasible. It is estimated to cost 10 trillion won ($8.7 billion). We asked the government to find a way to operate KTX bullet trains at minimum costs,’’ Sohn said. ``In Durban, we promised it would only take 68 minutes from Incheon Airport to the 2018 Olympics main venue. But now we think it will take longer, about 93 minutes.’’
Koo expects high-speed trains will run on existing tracks at speeds up to 230 kilometers per hour. ``On a newly-established line, trains would be able to achieve a maximum speed of 250 kilometers per hour. Building an entirely-new KTX track from Incheon Airport to PyeongChang is completely economically unviable.’’
The director general said it is not important to discuss how long it takes to connect Incheon Airport with 2018 Winter Olympics venues. ``What matters most is whether KTX trains operate to carry Olympics participants to where they need to go in a timely manner, regardless of weather conditions. Even if heavy snow falls in Gangwon Province, bullet trains will run as scheduled.’’
Koo added that the ministry will hold a series of consultation meetings with the soon-to-be-launched 2018 Olympics organizing committee over the issue. ``We will announce a finalized transportation plan for the 2018 Olympics by the end of June,’’ he said.