SOUTH KOREA: Hyundai Rotem has presented a light rail vehicle for Edmonton’s Valley Line West project, an automated metro trainset for Taoyuan’s Green Line, and a 150 km/h vehicle for Seoul’s Airport Express line at the RailLog Korea trade show. This took place in Busan on June 18-21.
Edmonton LRV
The manufacturer displayed one of the 40 seven-section low-floor light rail vehicles it is supplying for Edmonton’s 14 km, C$2·6bn Valley Line West project. The contract for these LRVs was signed at the end of 2021.
Valley Line West is the second phase of a 27 km cross-city route. The Hyundai Rotem cars are expected to operate over both sections of the line linking Mill Woods and Lewis Farms. The Valley Line Southeast section of the route opened in November 2023.
Taoyuan Green Line trainset
Hyundai Rotem also displayed one of the 40 two-car automated trainsets it is supplying for Taoyuan Metro’s Green Line under a 54·2bn won contract agreed in June 2018. This also included the supply of railway systems for the project in the Taiwanese city southwest of Taipei.
The 27·8 km first stage of the Green Line will form a Y shape. Two branches will link Kengkou and Hengshan on the Airport Line to Bade in the south of the conurbation, via Taoyuan main line station.
150 km/h Airport Express trainset
One of the nine six-car trainsets that Hyundai Rotem is building under a 181bn won, January 2022 contract for Incheon Airport shuttle operator A’REX has also been on show in Busan.
The 150 km/h vehicles were ordered to add capacity and relieve congestion on the 61 km route between the airport and Seoul station. When all are running, peak headways will be cut to 4 min from the current 6 min.
