Ricardo Rail to support the South Korea Great Train eXpress project

SG Rail Ltd – the company that will finance, design and build Line A for South Korea’s Great Train eXpress railway – has appointed Ricardo Rail to provide multi-discipline engineering and assessment services during the development of the line.

As the first of three standard-gauge lines planned for the new high-speed commuter network for Seoul and its surrounding commuter region, Line A will extend from Unjeong through to Dongtan in the Gyeonggi Province. The line will serve 10 stops along its planned route, operating at speeds of up to 180km/h – the end-to-end journey is estimated to be approximately 40 minutes, more than halving the journey times of the current metro services.

Ricardo Rail have been appointed to the project to provide system engineering and Independent Safety Assessment (ISA) services – the company will ensure that the infrastructure and rolling stock systems are correctly integrated and ready to provide a safe and efficient service upon the beginning of operation.

The company’s system engineering responsibilities will include the oversight of integration management and providing expert support on RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety), noise and vibration, electromagnetic compatibility and interface management. And, as the appointed ISA, Ricardo Rail will also be required to assess engineering and maintenance system safety against relevant international standards.

Business Manager for Ricardo Rail Korea, Seok-Kyun Shin, said: “Our experts will put in place the exemplary management procedures that will help support this major investment in Seoul’s transport infrastructure. With the technical knowledge and assurance processes we have developed in the UK and elsewhere readily available to our team in Seoul, we can help anticipate the engineering challenges ahead for Line A and be ready to support plans for its interfaces with Lines B and C.”