The population concentration and the active economic activity lead to explosive increase in demands for transportation. In order to overcome the limits of surface traffic, many metropolitan cities including Seoul have built the subway system and more local governments have strongly demanded building the subway system. However, considering construction and operation of the subway system, these local governments face with excessive construction costs and deficit operation and existing or recently newly-built subway systems produce steadily increasing deficit and the root cause of such operational deficit is the huge construction costs in the early stage. Therefore, the central government, which is supposed to support these costs, recommends more inexpensive railroad system rather than the subway system and the local governments also review various kinds of railway systems, aiming at lightweight electric railway systems available to receive financial support from the central government. Furthermore, medium and small cities begin to think that the light railway system is available and demand building a unique type of light railway. Meanwhile, the railroad transport system is considered as more economic and environmentally friendly transport system than other systems while the bus transport system is evaluated as a narrow-meaning public transit system.
Actually, an ideal public transportation system that most passengers demand has to provide flexibility, accessibility and punctuality in terms of operation and costs less when establishing the system. In case of bus transportation, it is equipped with most of strong points the public transit system has but, it still bears some problems related to punctuality. To overcome these problems, the HOV (high-occupancy vehicle) lane system connecting the downtown to neighboring regions in Seoul is being planned. Therefore, to absorb demands for passenger cars to the public transit system and to save huge social costs such as surface traffic congestion and environmental pollution, it is necessary to develop a new concept public transit system that can provide high-quality services such as the bus's flexibility and the railway's punctuality and environmentally friendliness. The objective of this research is to develop an optimized public transit system by mixing the railway's punctual operating and the bus's easy and convenient access.
If a certain transport system provides high punctuality and remarkable accessibility while costing very low when establishing the system, this system will be the most ideal system. A new transport system integrating the advantages of the railway and the bus has been already called BRT(Bus Rapid Transit) in many developed nations and the actual routes are commercially operated. This BRT system is operated, dividing into the high class BRT comparable to the railway system and the ordinary class with normal buses running on their dedicated lanes.
In Korea, intensive research and development is needed to build a future public transit system by improving and developing the high class BRT to an urban track vehicle based on the sufficient experience and operation systems of its subway and railway systems.
Basic design of the body and interior, Deciding specifications for the propulsion system of the low-floor articulated vehicle and basic design, Basic design of the driving system, Basic design of the guidance and steering system
Integration of the low-floor articulated vehicle and development of test evaluation technologies, Detail design of the CNG hybrid propulsion system of the low-floor articulated vehicle, Detail design of the driving system, Detail design of the guidance and steering system
Production of the body and interior and test evaluation of components, Production of the propulsion system of the low-floor articulated vehicle and test evaluation of components, Production of the driving system of the low-floor articulated vehicle and test evaluation of components, Production and test evaluation of the guidance and steering system
Integration of the systems (body, interior/hybrid steering/driving/guidance system), Test evaluation of the integrated system
Currently, 21 express bus routes on express highways and principal roads connecting Seoul to its neighboring cities are suggested and we plan to replace the express bus system on principal road with the CNG hybrid low-floor articulated vehicle system developed through this project or to introduce this system to new routes.
This system can lower the load posed on the environment according to the operation of the track vehicle in the downtown and ease air pollution matters. In addition, it is expected to ensure technical competitiveness over other overseas companies and to create import substitution effects through developing the CNG hybrid steering system
Relevant industrials will be actively fostered as the public transit system sharpens its technical edge such as independent driving system, automated driving and precise docking.
It is expected that the environmental pollution and the energy consumption matter resulted by vehicles will be eased if the CNG hybrid bimodal tram become practical
This technology is available to be used in various fields in terms of preventing global warming, protect air environment, using alternative fuels and diversifying technology application through promoting energy efficiency
The Korean industry that focuses on export can ensure its sustainable development only if it overcomes the developed nations' technical barrier related to environment and the automobile industry and the future-type railway industry, which account for 20 percent of the entire domestic industries and have a significant riffle effects to other industries, will play a leading role.
In overcrowded areas such as metropolitan cities, the emission from the public transit system and the noise generated during the running cause serous social problems. Therefore, that this environment-friendly low-floor bendable vehicle is expected to contribute to reducing the social loss costs incurred by the car pollutants and improving the quality of life.
