MOLIT Launches Overhaul of Privately Financed Railways After Series of Fatal Accidents... Supervision, Design, and Subcontracting All to Be Reformed

Implementation of "Measures to Strengthen Safety Management for Privately Invested Railways"

Key Tasks Established for Planning, Construction, and Operation Stages

MOLIT and Korea National Railway to Take Active Role as Safety Managers

Over the past decade, the number of fatal accidents at privately financed railroad construction sites has been found to be 4.1 times higher than at railroads built with government funding. Injury incidents were also about three times as frequent. As concerns have been raised that the private sector's focus on cost reduction and shortened construction timelines has led to comparatively lax safety management, the government has decided to intervene directly in all aspects of safety management, including supervision and accident investigations.

On April 26, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) announced that it will implement the "Measures to Strengthen Safety Management for Privately Invested Railways." Going forward, safety evaluations will be strengthened when selecting private railroad operators, and supervision and accident investigations will be led by MOLIT and the Korea National Railway. This means that public authorities will directly oversee safety management, which had previously been left to private developers. The ministry has set a key goal to drastically reduce the number of fatalities per 100 km of private railway construction from the current 1 to 0.1, and injuries from 25.1 to 4.2, through these measures.

Although privately financed railways have been used as a means to rapidly expand the railway network within limited government budgets, there has been ongoing criticism that the emphasis on reducing project costs and meeting construction deadlines has resulted in weaker safety management. Major accidents, such as those on the Bujeon-Masan Line in 2020 and the Sinansan Line last year, prompted these policy changes. In particular, there have been concerns that construction companies often take on the dual role of developer, leading to self-supervision issues. Public institutions have also treated the management of private sector projects as a secondary task, resulting in insufficient involvement in on-site safety management.

Changing Operator Selection... Safety Evaluation Score Increased Fivefold

On April 14th last year, 119 paramedics and police officers were conducting rescue operations for missing persons at the collapse site of the Shinansan Line double-track railway Section 5-2 construction in Gwangmyeong-si, Gyeonggi Province. One worker died and another was injured in this accident. At the Shinansan Line construction site built by POSCO E&C, a separate incident occurred in December of the same year at Yeouido Station in Seoul, Section 4-2 of the Shinansan Line, where rebar collapsed, burying seven workers, one of whom eventually died. Photo by Dongju Yoon

MOLIT will strengthen safety assessments from the very beginning of new privately financed railway projects. The weighting of technical evaluations in the selection of private developers will be increased to over 50%, and the safety management evaluation score will be raised from 10 to 50 points out of 1,000.

To prevent underqualified design firms from winning contracts through low bids, a new requirement for responsible engineers to have at least 15 years of experience will be introduced. To prevent poor designs aimed at shortening construction timelines, it will be required that designs proceed only after the implementation agreement is signed.

The preparatory period before construction, previously cited as a cause of rushed project schedules, will be extended from three months to about six months. Public authorities will actively manage compensation and permits for one year after groundbreaking to ensure that sufficient construction periods are secured.

Supervision Contracts and Accident Investigations Now Led by Government

The supervision process at construction sites will also be revised. Previously, private developers directly contracted and paid the supervisors, which meant that supervisors were essentially beholden to the developers, leading to insufficient safety personnel and inadequate inspections. Going forward, MOLIT and Korea National Railway will take the lead in supervision contracts to enhance supervisor independence.

Low-cost subcontracting will also be curbed. The previous system, where private developers selected subcontractors according to their own standards, will be replaced by applying the same "Construction Work Subcontract Screening Standards" used in public projects.

Safety inspections and accident investigations, which had been carried out by developers as project owners, will also be transferred to public authorities. MOLIT and Korea National Railway will conduct safety inspections directly, and major design changes to high-risk structures such as tunnels and bridges will require prior review by public authorities. In effect, public authorities will reclaim project management rights that were previously delegated to the private sector to fill safety oversight gaps.

Involvement in Facility Diagnostics and Legal Clarification of Public Agency Authority

Management of facilities in operation will also be strengthened. MOLIT and Korea National Railway will participate in detailed diagnostics and performance evaluations to proactively reinforce aging infrastructure.

The government will also clarify the legal authority of public institutions managing privately financed railways. Although regional offices of MOLIT and Korea National Railway have previously been involved in managing private railways, their legal position was limited to supporting tasks, making active intervention difficult. Going forward, the management of private railway projects will be explicitly included in the scope of duties for both institutions, granting them both responsibility and authority.

MOLIT plans to begin amending relevant laws and guidelines within the first half of the year. A regular consultative body including MOLIT, Korea National Railway, and private developers will also be established to gather on-site feedback and discuss further institutional improvements.

Kim Taebyeong, Director General of Railroads at MOLIT, stated, "Strengthening safety throughout the entire construction process and ensuring that the public can use railways without fear of accidents is a non-negotiable value for a government striving for a robust society. We will thoroughly manage privately financed railways to the same standards as publicly funded projects, taking hard-earned lessons from past accidents."

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