Modern society no longer demands transportation methods that are merely convenient as it has in the past, but now demands a transportation infrastructure that can appropriately accommodate our highly advanced society and evolved culture. In this way t...
Modern society no longer demands transportation methods that are merely convenient as it has in the past, but now demands a transportation infrastructure that can appropriately accommodate our highly advanced society and evolved culture. In this way transportation methods must take into consideration a multitude of even more complex and multi-dimensional factors than previously before. As one example, transportation methods must now take into consideration one of the currently most important global issues when being designed, which is the environmentally friendly aspect.
Being aware of and recognizing environmental issues, such as energy conservation movements and the need for alternative energy sources, has become the default attitude of modern society, and the perceptions of modern day global citizens has been shifted towards the camp of conserving energy and using it efficiently. People now take the environmentally friendly aspect into consideration in all areas of everyday life such as in the transportation methods they use. Because this change in perception is a global movement, it is an area that cannot be overlooked when developing high speed trains.
Due to developments in high speed railways and expressways, it is now possible to travel anywhere in Korea within 1/2 a day. Despite Korea being a one vehicle per household society, this may be the reason that there is continuous development in the areas of quality improvement and services offered for public transportation. This shows that there is a continuous growth in the demand for public transportation.
As is true of the automotive industry of Korea, the development of Korea’s railway system began with technology transfer from overseas. But Korea’s railway industry did not stagnate after its initial transfer of technology and is evaluated to have been adeptly localized through reflecting the cultural and geographical characteristics of Korea into the transferred technologies. The Korean high speed railway infrastructure that has been developed upon technological progress can be said to be a representative example of the advancement of transportation. Therefore it is also predicted that the high speed railway system will continue to expand its role as a method of public transportation.
With developments in the high speed railway system there is an increase in demand and also a naturally a greater variety of passengers use the system. This is because it is now possible to travel anywhere in the country within 6 hours, and it has become possible to commute to work or to school even for people living at relatively long distances from Seoul, such as in the satellite cities. But as long distance commute has become possible, the issue being able to provide adequate service to a large number of passengers at a specific time has arisen. Simply increasing the number of trains during peak commute times cannot be seen as an efficient solution. This is because there are astronomical costs associated with purchasing extra trains, and using them temporarily during peak times is inefficient and out of touch with reality.
Korea is an environment that is challenging to operate a railway system, both geographically and climate wise. This is because Korea has more mountainous regions with windy roads than it does flat plain regions and also due to the potential vehicle wear and tear caused by temperature changes during its four seasons. But Japan, which has similar environmental and social and cultural environments as Korea, has developed and successfully operates a double decker high speed train (train with two levels of passenger accommodation). The Japanese railway system determined passenger usage patterns according to time of day and was able to provide effective service through flexible operation of double decker high speed trains. Benchmarking the operation of Japan’s double decker high speed trains was helpful in arriving at the conclusions of this research.
Speed trains usage cases not of Japan, but also of many other countries, the function and design characteristics that could be applied to the development of a Korean double decker high speed train were analyzed and applied. Also by presenting specifications for a train that could be used with currently operated train stations and underground tunnels, an external design for a Korean double decker high speed train that could fill a role in the near future of public transportation was proposed. When presenting the various possible applications of a double decker high speed train for Korea, instead of just focusing on the speed and convenient factors of the train, by analyzing the types of trains at a fundamental level, a fine detailed research study was conducted on the functional and design aspects of the train. Also through the analysis of the case study of Japan, which has similar railway operating conditions to that of Korea, by predicting the feasibility of a double decker high speed train in Korea, the number of passengers that could be accommodated compared to the current high speed train was increased by about 35%. Also an independently powered railcar design, which is a distributed power characteristic that is not limited by the component design of the train, was adopted to achieve a flexible train design. The train design presented in this research simultaneously proposes a new possibility from a style point of view and also proposes the direction that the high speed railway system of Korea must take in the future.