Railway Investment Costs Surpass Roads for the First Time

5th Medium-Term Transportation Facility Investment Plan: Total Investment of 160 Trillion KRW over 5 Years
Railway Accounts for 40% with 64.1 Trillion KRW... 60.1 Trillion KRW Allocated for Road Network Reorganization

The government budget invested in railway facilities has surpassed that of road investment for the first time in the 'Mid-term Transportation Facility Investment Plan,' which provides a glimpse into South Korea's transportation policy plans for the next five years. This reflects the implementation of a policy to strengthen investment in railways and shift the national transportation network paradigm toward 'low-carbon green growth.'

On the 28th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that it finalized the '5th Mid-term Transportation Facility Investment Plan' for the next five years (2021?2025) after review by the National Transportation Committee and reported it to the State Council.

The goals of this 5th plan are recovery for the post-COVID-19 era's new normal, balanced national development, alleviation of congestion in metropolitan areas, and establishment of a connected transportation system. The Ministry explained that it particularly reflects new megatrends such as the development of new transportation technologies, changes in climate and population structure, and eco-friendliness.

The total investment scale over five years is 160.1 trillion KRW, which is a 21.6% increase compared to the investment scale of 131.7 trillion KRW under the 4th Mid-term Transportation Facility Investment Plan. Among this, the national government support amounts to 116.1 trillion KRW, a 26.2% increase from 92 trillion KRW in the 4th plan.

Notably, the railway sector receives the largest investment of 64.1 trillion KRW. This amount accounts for 40% of the total investment scale, and it is the first time since the establishment of the Mid-term Transportation Facility Investment Plan that investment in railways has exceeded that in roads. The plan aims to complete a high-speed national railway network by connecting interregional high-speed and metropolitan express railway networks so that most cities nationwide can be reached within two hours. As a result, the current railway length of 5,366 km will increase to 6,006 km.

In the road sector, 60.1 trillion KRW (37.6%) will be invested to reorganize the national trunk road network from the past '7X9+6R' to '10X10+6R2.' The goal is to complete a metropolitan high-speed highway network and a metropolitan circular radial high-speed network. In the port sector, 15.5 trillion KRW (9.7%) will be invested in developing Busan Port and Jinhae New Port to enhance the status as a logistics hub in Northeast Asia. Competitiveness will also be strengthened through port development that reflects the characteristics of regions such as the West Sea and East Sea areas. The airport sector plans to invest 3.5 trillion KRW (2.2%) to develop new airports in the Southeast region and Saemangeum, as well as improve the efficiency of regional airports. Additionally, balanced airport infrastructure for economic growth will be expanded through the development of small airports and hinterland complexes. Furthermore, 16.9 trillion KRW (10.5%) will be allocated to other sectors such as logistics. This includes investments for expanding and supplying infrastructure for future advanced mobility such as eco-friendly vehicles like electric and hydrogen cars, autonomous vehicles, drones, and urban air mobility.

This plan is interpreted as demonstrating the implementation of a shift to a railway-centered metropolitan transportation system to practice a low-carbon paradigm, including greenhouse gas reduction. The Ministry expects that through this, the overall transportation facility scale will increase by 8.27%, and costs related to vehicle operation, travel time, traffic accidents, and the environment could be reduced by 73.5 trillion KRW (14.7 trillion KRW annually).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.