Green Growth for Railroads, Highways

Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs reports green growth strategy to President Lee

The Green Growth Committee under the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) headed by Minister Chung Jong-hwan reported to President Lee Myung-bak the committee’s green growth strategy to be pushed which dealt with a plan to make railroads and highways green throughout the country by 2020, Director-General Lee Seung-ho of Railroad Policy at the MLTM said Nov. 5.
The reported strategy also included a plan to use bicycles and electric cars as a means to promote the green growth strategy on the public transport system.
The ministry feels that from 33 to 37 percent of greenhouse gas from exhaust fumes from cars on the streets and other transportation sectors would be reduced and save some 7.2 trillion won in fuel costs annually around the country by 2020, Dir. Gen. Lee said.
The government also plans to expand the investments on railroads to take up 50 percent of all investments that go into social overhead capital in the country from the current 29 percent by 2020, the ministry said, while investments in roads will be cut to 40 percent from the current 57.2 percent.
Roads have been singled out as a large cause for the greenhouse gas exhaustion with low energy effectiveness, which explains the government’s plan to expand investments in railroads.
Under the new railroad investment plant, the length of railroads connecting cities will be expanded 1.3 times to 1,054 km by 2020 from the current 831 km, while expanding the operation of the high-speed trains.
The government plans to design a plan to expand the high-speed railroad around the country by stages in the first half of next year.
The government will also push plans to employ double-decker container transport cargo trains as soon as possible and connect them with door-to-door delivery by linking up with delivery trucks. The government also plans to pay subsidies to commercial firms transporting their cargoes on trains and coastal vessels instead of roads.
The government also plans to reduce automobiles on the roads by expanding the means of public transport. The government may charge fees to cars using major city streets and highways by regions including flexible charges depending on the heaviness of traffic on weekdays and weekends.
In the meantime, the Korea Rail Network Authority and the Korea Society for Railways held a symposium to evaluate the investments in railroads with some 250 railroad experts from the government, academia and private research institutes attending on Oct. 28.
The symposium was largely divided into two sections, one for the convenience of railroad travel and the other on the demand for railroads. Major points on the convenience of railroads concerned trust and selective values based on the convenience of railroad travel and the surveys on projects for high-speed, wider service inter-city railroads before the decisions are made on those high-speed rails.
Dir. Gen. Lee Seung-ho of the Railroad Policy Office of the ministry said in a speech he read for Deputy Minister Hong Soon-man of the Railroad Policy Office of the ministry that the nation’s railroad’s history is 110 years old this year, which is also to be remembered as the year when the KRX-II, developed with Korean railroads’ own technology, started its run on the Honam Line, making Korea the fifth nation in the world to possess high-speed rail technology.
Reminding the meeting that it is also the first year for the government’s launch of its low-carbon green growth strategy, as a core government policy, which is aimed at helping Korea rank fifth in the world in terms of the success of its green growth policies by 2050.
“In line with such government strategies, we, the railroad men, should share jointly the vision for the realization of the green growth strategy by putting up ‘green railroad’ as our future value.
“Our railroad sector has been making a contribution to the low-carbon, green growth strategy already, which means a balanced growth of economy and environment and is ready to make further contributions to the strategy in the future.
“We appreciate the efforts of all of you for the development of the railroad industry, a key sector of our country,” Director-General Lee said in the speech. nw

MLTM Minister Chung Jong-hwan