It’s been more than five years since the world’s leading technology enabler Softil and Korea’s Hoimyung ICT Corporationannounced their cooperation to build next generation 3GPP MCPTX standard compliant terminals for use in South Korea’s hi-speed railway lines. 

The terminals have been in full production since September 2018 and are well prepared to meet the demands of the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) European standard.

The first rail line entered service in 2018, debuted for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, shuttling over 50,000 athletes and visitors daily from Incheon International Airport to the Olympic site in under two hours using 35 high-speed trains.

Since 2018, more than 140 high-speed trains across Korea’s rail network have been equipped with the Hoimyung/Softil MCX-enabled terminals. It is estimated that more than 125 million people travel on these intelligent express trains each year.

Hoimyung ICT Corporation terminals built with LTE-R technology (‘MCX for rail’), a version of LTE designed specifically for the mission-critical operational and maintenance services of railway operators, utilize Softil's BEEHD framework for stable voice, video, and data communication on high-speed trains, exceeding 250 km/h. They also offer essential features like real-time train tracking and railroad guidance for engine drivers, enhancing railway safety and efficiency.

As the FRMCS standard evolves and becomes a world-wide norm, Hoimyung ICT Corporation and Softil will continue to extend the solution for other applications and use cases to comply with all developing FRMCS requirements for signaling in the Korean market (also called KTCS-3) as well as to meet the signaling requirements for global markets. 

“The highly successful cooperation between our two firms is now poised to enter a new phase as Hoimyung aims to develop a new train signaling system called KTCS-3 leveraging Softil’s pioneering BEEHD technology. The system will allow more trains to run at the same time on a set route with maximum safety,” says Pierre Hagendorf, Softil’s CEO.

“The next generation of on-board signaling system supporting automatic operation is an ATP/ATO-integrated on-board system that meets European railway standards,” adds Chris Han, CEO of Hoimyung ICT Corporation. “The new signaling system will allow train control using only radio communication (LTE-R) without using existing track circuits in high-speed railway operating environments in the 350 km/h speed band.”