South Korea has just launched its new bullet train service
which travels at 300 kph (185 mph. The Korea Train Express will nearly halve
the near five-hour trip, by conventional train, from Seoul to Korea’s second
biggest city, Busan, in the southeast. A spur line connects the city of
Mokpo in the southwest. After years of delay, the KTX is finally coming
online when neighbouring China has built a high-speed Maglev train in
Shanghai. Riding on a cushion of air and driven by magnetic fields, that
train tops 430 kph as the world’s fastest. The government says that some
day, the KTX will be a vital link to train services in China and even the
trans-Siberia railway. However, before this happens, North Korea will have
to cooperate to have tracks across its borders.