• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.87-93
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• 2014

The KTX, running in Korea but imported from Alstom Co. in France, has folding type staircases complying with European standard EN 4752. However, when operating, the step size is only 200mm, while the Korean standard step size is 253mm, a standard reflecting the average value of persons aged 20~60. From the aspect of kinesiology, the current step size can cause falls or slips during embarking and disembarking of passengers because body load is mostly focused on the heel and the current step is much more narrow than the standard size. Thus, we have performed an analytical study to check the safety of folding type staircases on the KTX after re-design.