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By Kim Rahn
Safety concerns are mounting over the newly opened high-speed railway linking Seoul and Gwangju following a series of malfunctions.
Passengers have already experienced three glitches since the opening of the train service last Thursday, venting their anger at the railway operator, the Korea Railroad Corp. (Korail), and Hyundai Rotem, the manufacturer of the high-speed trains.
The KTX Honam Line started operations on April 2, connecting Yongsan Station in Seoul to Gwangju with a journey time of 93 minutes. The line is extended further to Mokpo but that track is not exclusively for high-speed trains.
According to Korail Monday, a cover of the washer inlet on a new train bound for Mokpo opened because of a loose nut, at around 12:05 p.m. on the first day of operation.
The engineers stopped the train near Gwangmyeong Station for about seven minutes, but could not fix it immediately. The train kept running but not at its full speed, 300 kilometers per hour. It travelled at 190-230 kilometers per hour.
The train stopped at Iksan Station where staff there attached the cover temporarily with duct tape. But the tape fell off as the train moved again. The train eventually arrived at Mokpo 19 minutes later than schedule.
"The cover was opened because Hyundai Rotem did not put adhesive on the nut, not abiding by due procedure," a Korail official said.
But many passengers criticized Korail for failing to check the trains thoroughly before launching operations. Passengers on the train also said that staffers did not provide correct information about the situation, first saying the train had signal problems but later saying that something bumped into it.
Following the incident, Korail checked the covers of all its 10 trains used on the Honam Line.
On Saturday, a train bound for Mokpo stopped on a bridge near Osong Station at 10:40 a.m. due to a malfunction in a signaling device. It restarted three minutes later after rebooting the system.
"Passengers on the train may have been scared because the train stopped on the curved bridge," the official said.
"We didn't have such system malfunction during test runs. We are examining the train's speed records to solve the problem."
On the same day, the electricity was cut on the 5.3-kilometer section of the northbound track from Iksan Station to Gongju Station for 87 minutes in the afternoon. Northbound trains had to use the southbound track on the section, resulting in the delays of four trains.
One of the four already entered the section when the power was cut, so it ran backward for about 1 kilometer and used the southbound track, arriving at Yongsan 33 minutes behind schedule.
According to Korail, the cause of the power cut was magpies. The birds put twigs on an insulator on a power pole and after the twigs got wet from rain, they caused a short circuit.
"In April and May, magpies build nests. We remove 100 nests on average every day," the official said.
Korail apologized for the trouble, but said such minor incidents almost always happen with new operations, saying it usually takes one to two years for bullet train operators in other countries to settle such problems fully.
"We are asking Rotem and other contractors to come up with countermeasures as soon as possible," he said.
