Hyundai Rotem, Russia to cooperate on train project

Hyundai Rotem, Korea’s biggest maker of rolling stocks, on Sunday said it has taken a big step in connecting the railroads of Asia and Europe by agreeing to work with a Russian state-run train manufacturer on the project.

Executives from UralVagonZovod, a train-making unit owned wholly by the Russian government, will be visiting Hyundai Rotem’s Changwon plant and research institute to discuss how to cooperate and share technology for the bilateral train and railway project.

The reports of the agreement came after President Park Geun-hye met with her Russian counterpart Vladmir Putin during a state visit.

“I had dreamt for a day when a train would depart from Busan to reach Europe through Russia,” Park said of the plans, adding that strengthening cooperation with Eurasian nations is one of her administration’s key challenges.

The Seoul government has consistently talked of connecting the trans-Korean railway and the trans-Siberian railways to create a trans-Eurasian line. Currently, there are no railways that connect Asia directly to Europe.

Chung Mong-koo, the chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, also had previously called on affiliates such as Hyundai Rotem to take more initiative in the Eurasian railway project as it would be cheaper and less time-consuming to export cars via trains.

Russia, along with North Korea, are the key geographical factors for building the trans-Eurasian railway.

“We hope that by working closely with Russia, North Korea also would be persuaded to join in the efforts,” said Chang Deok-gyu, a spokesman for Hyundai Rotem.

Hyundai Rotem is currently in the process of developing a high-speed long-term train to be used in Russia. It also will be making a bid to supply trains for Moscow that will start service in 2015.

Last year, the Korean firm signed an agreement with the Russian state railway authorities on developing and supplying trains.

Regarding future projects with Russia, Hyundai Rotem expects to take leadership in areas such as architecture, production technology and system engineering, while the rolling stocks would be jointly produced by Korea and Russia.

“If the two Koreas and Russia can agree on how to connect the railway lines threading through Eurasia, the train manufacturing may one day occur in North Korea,” Chang said, hinting at inter-Korean cooperation.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)