Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Demophobe]

I have a friend from France who is one of the engineers on the bullet train project. (Sonofgun is making HUGE money and living in a really nice place overlooking the beach in Pusan!) He's been here for 5 years de-bugging the implementation and according to him, the birds are the least of the problems.
The Koreans are over-riding many of the safety features implemented in the system, as these take time, money and some pretty lengthy procedural scheduling. These shortcuts are causing some pretty crazy malfunctions, which the Koreans are trying to pin on the French. I am not Korea-bashing, just telling the truth. These oversights, so far, haven't been catastrophic. He sorely tells me to never ride that train. It's a timebomb, unless they follow the rules. He was supposed to go home 6 months ago, but due to the Korean inability to read the manual, he is still here, facing some pretty complex problem-solving as a result of the mis-treatment of the system.
He is getting bitter....he used to be one of the most positive people I knew here (and why not? He had it made for 5 years!), but that is crashing down.
Anyways, I trust him....he helped build it. Don't ride the train, folks.

[Real Reality]

Some things are worth repeating.

Demophobe wrote,
"The Koreans are over-riding many of the safety features implemented in the system, as these take time, money and some pretty lengthy procedural scheduling.
He is getting bitter....he used to be one of the most positive people I knew here (and why not? He had it made for 5 years!), but that is crashing down."

Worth a special copy and paste

[Zed]

It seems they get foreign advisors involved in every project and ignore virtually anything they have to say. I was talking to someone who was an advisor involved in the construction of the airport and he was telling me the same thing. I guess it's kind of like being asked for your input in a hagwon staff meeting. Don't bother, you're only making the meeting longer.

[Real Reality]

The KNR forecasts that the KTX will produce W570 billion in deficits this year. And also, the KNR should give up on its debt payment plan in which the company intends to pay off its loan by 2013. An official at the KNR said that if the situation goes unchecked, the KNR has to borrow money again to pay the principal and interest of the KTX and the total liabilities will continue to grow.

An increased burden of the government in paying the costs means using taxes paid by the public. And the extension of repayment is just a stopgap measure unless the KTX doesn��t have an independent profitable system.

Experts, however, point out that the basic reason is that from the start, the KNR advertised unreasonably exaggerated profits in order to rationalize the construction of the KTX, on which was spent an astronomical amount of money.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200407/200407090043.html

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

You guys see Spider-Man 2? Do you think Spidey coulda stopped that train if it was the KTX? I doubt it.

Sparkles*_*

[Blind Willie]

Real Reality, why are you here, and not on English Spectrum?

[just because]

[Alias]

[quote="Real Reality]
Demophobe wrote,
The Koreans are over-riding many of the safety features implemented in the system, as these take time, money and some pretty lengthy procedural scheduling.
[/quote]

That is f*^@ing scary!

[Real Reality]

Lawmakers hit spending on bullet train
In particular, Kim said on the Kyeongbu line linking Seoul and Busan, about 3 of every 10 trains have been late since the KTX service began. Three times as many people are using the conventional railroad system rather than the KTX. The occupancy rate has been below 50 percent on many days.
article by Kim Min-hee
The Korea Herald (October 15, 2004)
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2004/10/15/200410150029.asp