SENIOR rail executives and high-speed rail specialists from Korea, Japan, France, Germany, and the United States outlined the current state of play and probable future developments of high-speed rail during the KTX symposium in Seoul.

Mr Kim Se-Ho, administrator of Korean National Railroad (Korail), which operates KTX, said current issues included finding ways to reduce track maintenance costs, and solving wheel-rail interface and tunnel noise problems. He also looked forward to the development of a high-speed network in Korea covering more than 1000km, with the next generation of trains running at 350km/h.

Future developments in Korean high-speed rail were addressed by Mr K R Yang of the Korea Railroad Research Institute. He said the next 350km/h train, while still based on the French technology transferred during the KTX project, would be an entirely Korean project. "We shall be self-sufficient in future projects," he said.

The $US 200 million development budget would produce a train with a number of differences from KTX. These include a uniquely Korean front end design, induction motors instead of synchronous motors, use of aluminium extrusions instead of mild steel for the car bodies, reducing weight by about 7%, the addition to friction and electric regenerative braking of eddy-current braking, pressurised passenger accommodation, and a shorter 11 car version. A prototype train with two power cars and five trailers has been built and tested. It reached 302.1km/h in August 2003.