Call Seoul for answers
Sunday November 29 2009
Sir -- It is with jaw-dropping astonishment that I read of Dublin's proposed underground rail service. Gyeonggi Province (which encircles Seoul, South Korea) also announced plans for a new underground, the GTX.
Dublin underground (7.5km) = €3bn. GTX (145.5km) = €8.045 bn. Oh, and the Korean trains will run at twice the depth of the Irish ones, at top speeds of 200km/h. So, a city 25 times bigger than Dublin is getting a high-speed rail network for a little under three times the cost of the Irish model? The second largest metropolitan area on Earth (population 24.5 million) will get a transportation system nearly 20 times more extensive, over three lines instead of Dublin's one. For not even three times what the Irish will pay?
Tristan Kessler,
Hopyeong-dong, Namyangju-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
