By 2026, 50 Million Tons... Increasing Freight Train Transport Volume and Speed

The government plans to double the volume of rail freight transport to 50 million tons by 2026 and introduce long freight trains to reduce transportation costs and time.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 6th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that it has prepared the "2nd Railway Logistics Industry Promotion Plan," which includes these measures, after deliberation by the Railway Industry Deliberation Committee.

The Ministry will first operate one long freight train regularly from the second half of this year on the route between Obong Station in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, and Busan New Port.

The long freight train can transport up to 50 containers for cement and steel, which is about 50% more than the existing freight trains that carry 33 containers.

The Ministry also plans to expand the operation of high-speed freight trains running at 120 km/h from the current 32% to 50%, and shorten the delay operation standard from 60 minutes to 30 minutes to manage punctuality.

Additionally, a "multimodal logistics facility" will be established to sort cargo transported via trunk railways, package it, and move it to delivery destinations.

According to the national railway network plan, the Ministry will expand the "private freight car" system, which offers fare discounts to freight owners who manufacture freight railway vehicles themselves for routes connecting major industrial complexes or ports, to compensate for investment costs.

Along with this, express delivery services capable of two-hour delivery nationwide will be applied to new EMU vehicles such as KTX-Eum, and the service will be expanded to 13 stations nationwide within the first half of this year.

The Ministry also announced plans to reduce carbon emissions by replacing diesel locomotives with electric locomotives and preparing strategies to introduce hydrogen fuel cell and hybrid electric locomotives.

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