There has been some confusion over Suncheon Bay’s PRT system after the head of SC-PRT announced that it was stopping trial services that have been open to the public according to this article by NSP Communications.
The transport system was originally supposed to begin operations in April on the same day that the Suncheon Bay Garden Expo 2013 got underway. Unfortunately, the PRT was far from ready and didn’t open to the public until nearly four months later on August 15. Check out the view from one of the pods filmed back in May in the video below.
Despite this, the system is still in its testing phase and the article states the mixed messages emanating from the Suncheon Bay PRT operator. One director in the company said that the test operations would only be open to the public until Chuseok, while the CEO of the company claimed that they would be open to the public until the promised date of October 20 when the Garden Expo ends.
Earlier in the year four government officials leading the PRT project were also disciplined after it was found that the company constructing the line had already been chosen in advance.
Unfortunately most major light rail projects in Korea thus far have been marred by either accidents, fallout between companies or extended delays in opening. Considering that there are plans for numerous other light rail projects – not just in Seoul but around the country, one hopes that planners will learn from the mistakes of others.
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Do you have any details about the Urbanaut monorail project in S. Korea that has run into some kind of trouble and has yet to be opened to the public, despite construction being completed several years ago. See http://www.urbanaut.com for some details on this project.
Hi Jerry, thanks for your comment. Yes we have written a couple of posts on it. Find our latest post about it here. https://kojects.com/2013/04/15/alternatives-being-investigated-for-wolmidos-monorail/
Ironically it is a bit heartening to see that PRT is suffering from some of the same growing pains and mismanagement issues normally associated with conventional transportation projects. The focus is drifting away from "if" or "why?" to "how?" and "when?" :-)
Does anyone have more recent news about the PRT in Suncheon Bay? Did it stay open? If not, will it re-open? I read a translated news story today that was pretty garbled except for the clear implication that the Suncheon Bay PRT had been renamed "Sky Cube." What's the story?
Hey!
After I saw your comment, I did a quick search on the web but I couldn't find any information on the Suncheon PRT. Today I accidentally came across a news article, which mentions that the PRT in Suncheon will open on Apr 19 (the source: http://www.nspna.com/news/?mode=view&newsid=85893). That will be the first real operation of that PRT system since the trial.