Hyundai Rotem said on the 6th that it began commercial service of a new high-speed train in Uzbekistan on the 5th (local time). This is the first time a Korean high-speed train has been put into commercial operation overseas.
The high-speed train built by Hyundai Rotem has been deployed on the country's longest rail line, running about 1,020 kilometers across the capital Tashkent and Khiva, a representative Silk Road city in the western region. With the opening of the high-speed service, the travel time from Tashkent to Khiva is expected to be cut to around seven hours, about half of the previous time.
The train was designed based on the KTX-Eum (EMU-260), a high-speed model operating in Korea. To ensure a safe and comfortable ride even on long-distance runs, it was customized for local conditions, featuring dust-proofing and other designs suited for extreme heat and desert environments.
Hyundai Rotem also expects a shared-growth effect for Korea's high-speed rail industry ecosystem. The localization of the Korean high-speed train set a long-term goal of overseas exports, with the public and private sectors working together for more than 20 years through repeated research and development (R&D) and stabilization phases.
A Hyundai Rotem official said, "The more than 600 domestic parts partners that took part in this high-speed train project have, with this first overseas commercial operation result, demonstrated to the global market a stable collaboration system and supply chain with Hyundai Rotem, from production and delivery to local handover."