KORAIL’s 108 Years
By Lee Sun-ho
Today (Sept. 18) marks the 108th anniversary of KORAIL (renamed from the Korea Railroad Corporation on Jan. 1 this year), whose first train ran 33.2 km from Noryangjin (southern ferry of Seoul's Han River) to Jemulpo (Incheon port) back in 1899, at the waning period of the Joseon Kingdom.
Over the century, KORAIL has experienced a lot of joy and pain in the course of becoming a modern public transportation system for the public.
It endured tremendous adversity amid the turbulent wheels of history _ Japanese colonial rule, foreign military control after liberation from Japan, national division and the Korean War.
The rail authority also saw the post-war reconstruction of the nation and the vicissitudes of cultivating rail operation technologies in recent decades.
Despite continuous highway and road construction upon public infrastructure expansion since the development age of the 1960s in the South, railways are still Korea's primary means of transportation, whether for passenger or freight services.
KORAIL is a large government-controlled organization composed of more than 30,000 workers carrying nearly one million passengers and around 50,000 tons of freight per year. Its assets account for over 14,000 trillion won while its accumulated debts stand at nearly 3 trillion won.
The government's policy of dealing with accumulated debt through considered budget allocation to state run organizations saw KORAIL transform itself into a public enterprise on Jan. 1, 2005. The organization accelerated its management innovation with a strong focus on ``Root Business" in pursuit of the fundamental improvement of the whole industrial structure
The motivations revealed that the freight car loading process for import and export containers was improved to provide upgraded services, which helped to acquire logistics competitiveness.
A high-speed railway known as Korea Train Express (KTX), introduced on April 1, 2004, running at a speed of over 200km per hour, is considered one of the largest government projects since the foundation of the nation in 1948. Thence Korea has joined the ranks of the 300km/h super-speed countries of France (TGV), Japan (Shinkansen), Germany (ICE) and Spain (AVE).
The fast, comfortable and eco-friendly bullet train is a high-tech transportation mode that represents the next generation's railway.
Construction of rail links between South and North Korea has been in limbo. On May 17 two test trains ran on the reinstalled tracks, one on the west from Munsan to Gaeseong, another on the east from Geumgang to Jejin.
Realization of the ``Unification Express" by a Trans-Korean Railroad (TKR) must be one of the most important topics to be brought up at the inter-Korean summit talks slated for Oct. 2-4 in Pyongyang.
It is hoped that linking up the two Korean railroads will eventually create an uninterrupted railroad from Far East Asia to Western Europe through Russia and China in the not-too-distant future.
Despite intricate political and economic challenges holding up the restoration of the ``Iron Silk Road" linking the Far East and Europe, KORAIL should still plan the blueprint that connects Seoul and Pyongyang, and on to Europe either via the 9,300km Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR) or similar far-reaching trans-continental route through China or Mongolia.
In the midst of the human network society based on clients' ``glocal'' (global+local) thoughts on safety devices, KORAIL should run for the ``Green Network" that is environmentally friendly, create a better life and valuable future with its business ideals of client-oriented, value-creating and trusted management.
As KORAIL's logo signifies the mighty power of Korean railroads, it should revamp its image as the leader of the 21st century's renaissance era with super-speed railroad management and continental railroad connection running throughout the world.
We should look on the bright side and steadily and slowly solve the century-old problems and tasks, including accumulated debt services, to open up fully-separate tracks for the ``Iron Silk Road."
Even beyond the 108-year history full of harsh trials and errors of recurring ups and downs, KORAIL should constantly travel with its clients on the long journey of the new century with fresh dreams and firm resolutions.
Aside from the integrated management innovation of employees, policy and commodity, it should share, under the positive financial support of the government, the bigger fruit as a vital part for dynamic growth of the national economy only in quantity but also in quality, with its vision of ``Power KORAIL 2010." Hurrah for KORAIL!
The writer is a member of the Deliberation Committee on Investment and Fund Operations of KORAIL located in Daejon. He can be reached at kexim2@unitel.co.kr.