Four management priorities: safety, fairness, field operations and future mobility

Jung Jin-hyuk delivers his inaugural address at a ceremony held Tuesday at Korea National Railway's headquarters in Daejeon. [Korea National Railway]
Jung Jin-hyuk delivers his inaugural address at a ceremony held Tuesday at Korea National Railway's headquarters in Daejeon. [Korea National Railway]

Jung Jin-hyuk, a professor of urban engineering at Yonsei University, officially took office Tuesday as the ninth chairman of Korea National Railway.

At his inauguration ceremony at the organization's headquarters in Daejeon, Jung declared "back to principles and basics" as his management slogan and announced a systems-driven overhaul of the organization.

In his inaugural address, Jung outlined four core pillars for Korea National Railway: building a prevention-focused safety framework, establishing fairness and trust, strengthening field-centered project management, and leading the future mobility sector.

Jung said safety would be the top priority in all decision-making. He pledged to build a data-based preventive safety management system to create a rail environment the public can rely on. On the organizational side, he plans to introduce clear standards and data-driven decision-making to establish a performance-oriented, fair evaluation culture.

Jung also said he would strengthen on-the-ground responsiveness in railway projects by creating a structure that immediately incorporates field input into decision-making to quickly resolve bottlenecks during project execution. He added that the organization would integrate AI and digital technology into the rail network and improve connectivity with other modes of transport to lead the future mobility market, while accelerating the overseas expansion of South Korea's railway technology.

Jung is a leading transportation planning expert who has served as president of the Korean Society of Transportation and as a member of the National Transport Commission. His appointment has raised expectations that Korea National Railway will smoothly advance its twin mandates of expanding the national rail network and driving the transition to future mobility.


hwshin@heraldcorp.com