Competitiveness Increasing Methods of Metropolitan Railway Shinbundang-line

신분당선 전철의 경쟁력 제고 방안

Shinbundang-line is new Metropolitan Railway which was invested by private capital and is under construction for opening in 2010. Now Shinbundang-line pursues various innovation, for example, an express train which uses long distance of each station, and an unmanned operation. And it may be independent of existing metropolitan railway system from a viewpoint of line and fare system. So according to the present plan, Shinbundang-line will be not able to get sufficient demand because of weak connection with existing lines and monotonous function of the line. And it may be difficult to deliver various innovation which Shinbundang-line prepares to passengers. Hereupon, in this paper, I propose 3 methods for increasing competitive power of Shinbundang-line railway. First, making Shinbundang-line a trunk railway line of southern metropolitan area was proposed in relation to northern and southern extension of it. In addition connection with bus and light rail was discussed. Second, multipurpose usage of Shinbundang-line was proposed as express train and conventional passenger train in that line in addition to simple metropolitan railway. Finally, an effective operation method which Shinbundang-line must have was proposed from unmanned driving and fare system side. These methods can improve Shinbundang-line and then it will solve traffic congestion of southern metropolitan area effectively.