Artist's rendition of ultra high-speed train Hypertube (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

By Koh Hyunjeong

A new government initiative seeks to develop the core technology for Hypertube trains, or "airplanes on rails."

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on April 9 announced a three-year investment of KRW 12.7 billion from this year in the development of magnetic levitation (maglev) propulsion technology.

As a next-generation transportation system using maglev technology to float a train inside a near-vacuum tube at 0.001 to 0.01 standard atmosphere, or atm, Hypertube can achieve ultra-high speeds by using the electromagnetic force between a train and the tracks.

Because the inside of the sub-vacuum tube, where pressure is lowered, has nearly no air resistance, speeds of up to 1,200 kph are possible. This is far faster than an airplane, more ecofriendly and less affected by weather conditions.

The project could reduce travel time between Seoul and Busan to under 20 minutes, much quicker than the high-speed rail KTX, which takes an hour and 52 minutes to cover that distance at a top speed of 300 kph.

"This will contribute to resolving the crisis of provincial extinction caused by balanced regional development and the demographic cliff," said Yoon Jin-hwan, director of the ministry's Railway Bureau. "We expect to lead the global rail competition market and expand to every region in the world."

hjkoh@korea.kr