Yongin City Completes Installation of Screen Doors at 15 Light Rail Transit Stations

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun] Yongin City announced on the 18th that it has completed the installation of semi-closed screen doors at all platforms in 15 light rail transit stations to prevent safety accidents.

Yongin Light Rail Transit is the only subway or railway station in the country that operated without screen doors, instead using track intrusion detection systems. However, safety concerns have been raised, including passenger injuries from emergency braking and accidents such as motorized wheelchairs falling onto tracks.

To address this, the city invested a total of 5.68 billion won, comprising 4.57 billion won in city budget and 1.11 billion won in national and provincial funds, to install the screen doors.

Following completion in December last year, the city underwent test operations and procedures including vehicle modification and final approval from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport before beginning full operation today.

The city contracted with a domestic company to achieve technology localization and realized approximately 19.5 billion won in budget savings. The estimate provided by Canada-based Bombardier, which manufactured and supplied the light rail trains and unmanned automatic train control systems, was approximately 25 billion won for screen door installation.

Yongin Mayor Baek Kun-gi visited the City Hall and Yongin University stations on the morning of the 18th to carefully inspect the operation of the screen doors and encouraged related officials.

Mayor Baek said, "I hope citizens can use the light rail transit with peace of mind without concerns about safety accidents," and "We will continue to improve public transportation infrastructure so citizens can use it safely and conveniently everywhere."

Meanwhile, the city plans to station specialized technicians at each station for three months to respond immediately to any issues that may arise.