text:
Korea Train Express

Korea Train eXpress, often known as KTX , is South Korea's high-speed rail system, operated by Korail. Construction began on the high-speed line from Seoul to Busan in 1992. KTX services were launched on April 1, 2004.

From Seoul Station the KTX lines radiate with stops at Seoul Station, Yongsan station towards Busan and Gwangju. A new line from Wonju to Gangneung was completed in December 2017 to serve the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

The current maximum operating speed for trains in regular service is 305 km/h, though the infrastructure is designed for 350 km/h. The initial rolling stock was based on Alstom's TGV Réseau, and was partly built in Korea. The domestically developed HSR-350x, which achieved 352.4 km/h in tests, resulted in a second type of high-speed trains now operated by Korail, the KTX Sancheon. The next generation KTX train, HEMU-430X, achieved 421.4 km/h in 2013, making South Korea the world's fourth country after Japan, France and China to develop a high-speed train running on conventional rail above 420 km/h. In June 2024, South Korea and Uzbekistan concluded a US$196 million deal to apply KTX technology in Uzbekistan.

Origins of the project
The Seoul-Busan axis is Korea's main traffic corridor. In 1982, it represented 65.8% of South Korea's population, a number that grew to 73.3% by 1995, along with 70% of freight traffic and 66% of passenger traffic. With both the Gyeongbu Expressway and Korail's Gyeongbu Line congested as of the late 1970s, the government saw the pressing need for another form of transportation.

The first proposals for a second Seoul-Busan railway line originated from a study prepared between 1972 and 1974 by experts from France's SNCF and the Japan Railway Technical Service on a request from the IBRD. A more detailed 1978-1981 study by KAIST, focusing on the needs of freight transport, also came to the conclusion that separating long-distance passenger traffic on a high-speed passenger railway would be advisable, and it was adopted in the following Korean Five Year Plan.

During the following years, several feasibility studies were prepared for a high-speed line with a Seoul–Busan travel time of 1 hour 30 minutes, which gave positive results. In 1989, following the go-ahead for the project, the institutions to manage its preparation were established: the Gyeongbu High Speed Electric Railway & New International Airport Committee, and the High Speed Electric Railway Planning Department (later renamed HSR Project Planning Board). In 1990, the planned Seoul–Busan travel time was 1 hour 51 minutes, the project was to be completed by August 1998, and costs were estimated at 5.85 trillion South Korean won in 1988 prices, 4.6 trillion of which were to be spent on infrastructure, the remainder on rolling stock.

As planning progressed, the Korea High Speed Rail Construction Authority (KHSRCA) was established in March 1992 as a separate body with its own budget responsible for the project. In the 1993 reappraisal of the project, the completion date was pushed back to May 2002, and cost estimates grew to 10.74 trillion won. 82% of the cost increase was due to a 90% increase in unit costs in the construction sector, mostly labour costs but also material costs, and the remainder due to alignment changes. To finance the project, the option of a build-operate-transfer (BOT) franchise was rejected as too risky. Funding included direct government grants (35%), government (10%) and foreign (18%) loans, domestic bond sales (31%) and private capital (6%).

Start of high-speed line construction
KHSRCA started construction of the Seoul–Busan Gyeongbu high-speed railway (Gyeongbu HSR) on June 30, 1992, on the 57 km long section from Cheonan to Daejeon, which was intended for use as test track.

Construction started before the choice of the main technology supplier, thus alignment design was set out to be compatible with all choices. Of the planned 411 km line, 152.73 km would be laid on bridges, and another 138.68 km in tunnels. However, plans were changed repeatedly, in particular those for city sections, following disputes with local governments, while construction work suffered from early quality problems. Planned operating speed was also reduced from 350 km/h to the 300 km/h maximum of high-speed trains on the market. Three competitors bid for the supply of the core system, which included the rolling stock, catenary and signalling: consortia led by GEC-Alsthom, today Alstom, one of the builders of France's TGV trains; Siemens, one of the builders of Germany's ICE trains; and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, one of the builders of Japan's Shinkansen trains. In 1994, the alliance of GEC-Alsthom and its Korean subsidiary Eukorail were chosen as winner.

The technology was almost identical to that found on the high-speed lines of France's TGV system. Track-related design specifications included a design speed of 350 km/h and standard gauge.

Phase 1: Seoul–Daegu and conventional line upgrades
Following the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the government decided to realise the Gyeongbu HSR in two phases. In a first phase, two-thirds of the high-speed line between the southwestern suburbs of Seoul and Daegu would be finished by 2004, with trains travelling along the parallel conventional line along the rest of the Seoul–Busan route. The upgrade and electrification of these sections of the Gyeongbu Line was added to the project, and also the upgrade and electrification of the Honam Line from Daejeon to Mokpo, providing a second route for KTX services. The budget for the first phase was set at 12,737.7 billion won, that for the entire project at 18,435.8 billion won in 1998 prices. While the share of government contributions remained unchanged, the share of foreign loans, domestic bond sales and private capital changed to 24%, 29% and 2%.

The infrastructure and rolling stock were created in the framework of a technology transfer agreement, which paired up Korean companies with core system supplier Alstom and its European subcontractors for different subsystems. Alstom's part of the project amounted to US$2.1 billion or €1.5 billion. Well ahead of the opening of the Gyeongbu HSR for regular service, in December 1999, 34.4 km of the test section, later extended to 57 km, was finished to enable trials with trains. After further design changes, the high-speed tracks were finished over a length of 223.6 km, with 15.0 km of interconnections to the conventional Gyeongbu Line, including at a short interruption at Daejeon. The high-speed section itself included 83.1 km of viaducts and 75.6 km of tunnels. Conventional line electrification was finished over the 132.8 km across Daegu and on to Busan, the 20.7 km across Daejeon, and the 264.4 km from Daejeon to Mokpo and Gwangju. After 12 years of construction and with a final cost of 12,737.7 billion won, the initial KTX system with the first phase of the Gyeongbu HSR went into service on April 1, 2004.

Phase 2: Daegu–Busan, extra stations, urban sections
The Daegu–Busan section of the Gyeongbu HSR became a separate project with the July 1998 project revision, with a budget of 5,698.1 billion won, with funding from the government and private sources by the same ratios as for phase 1. In August 2006, the project was modified to again include the Daejeon and Daegu urban area passages, as well as additional stations along the phase 1 section. For these additions, the budget as well as the government's share of the funding was increased.

Construction started in June 2002. The 128.1 km line, which follows a long curve to the northeast of the existing Gyeongbu Line, includes 54 viaducts with a total length of 23.4 km and 38 tunnels with a total length of 74.2 km. The two largest structures are the 20,323 m Geomjeung Tunnel, under Mount Geumjeong at the Busan end of the line; and the 13,270 m Wonhyo Tunnel, under Mount Cheonseong south-west of Ulsan, which will be the longest and second longest tunnels in Korea once the line is opened.

A long dispute concerning the environmental impact assessment of the Wonhyo Tunnel, which passes under a wetland area, caused delays for the entire project. The dispute gained nationwide and international attention due to the repeated hunger strikes of a Buddhist nun, led to a suspension of works in 2005, and only ended with a supreme court ruling in June 2006. With the exception of the sections across Daejeon and Daegu, the second phase went into service on November 1, 2010. By that time, 4,905.7 billion won was spent out of a second phase budget, or 17,643.4 billion won out of the total.

The two sections across the urban areas of Daejeon and Daegu, altogether 40.9 km, will be finished by 2014. As of October 2010, the total cost of the second phase was estimated at 7,945.4 billion won, that for the entire project at 20,728.2 billion won. The last element of the original project that was shelved in 1998, separate underground tracks across the Seoul metropolitan area, was re-launched in June 2008, when an initial plan with a 28.6 km long alignment and two new stations was announced.

Further upgrades of connecting conventional lines
The electrification and the completion of the re-alignment and double-tracking of the Jeolla Line, which branches from the Honam Line at Iksan and continues to Suncheon and Yeosu, began in December 2003, with the aim to introduce KTX services in time for the Expo 2012 in Yeosu. The upgrade will allow to raise top speed from 120 to 180 km/h. The section of the perpendicular Gyeongjeon Line from Samnangjin, the junction with the Gyeongbu Line near Busan, to Suncheon is upgraded in a similar way, with track doubling, alignment modifications and electrification for 180 km/h. The until Masan was opened on December 15, 2010. The upgrade is to be complete until Jinju by 2012 and Suncheon by 2014. The top speed of the AREX line, Seoul's airport link, is to be raised from 110 to 180 km/h for the KTX.

The Ulsan–Gyeongju–Pohang section of the Donghae Line is foreseen for an upgrade in a completely new alignment that circumvents downtown Gyeongju and connects to the Gyeongbu High Speed Railway at Singyeongju Station, allowing for direct KTX access to the two cities. On April 23, 2009, the project was approved by the government and a ground-breaking ceremony was held. The altogether 76.56 km line is slated to be opened in December 2014.

On September 1, 2010, the South Korean government announced a strategic plan to reduce travel times from Seoul to 95% of the country to under 2 hours by 2020. The main new element of the plan is to aim for top speeds of 230 – in upgrades of much of the mainline network with view to the introduction of KTX services. The conventional lines under the scope of the plan include the above, already on-going projects, and their extensions along the rest of the southern and eastern coasts of South Korea, lines along the western coast, lines north of Seoul, and the second, more easterly line between Seoul and Busan with some connecting lines.

Honam HSR
Until 2006, the first plans for a second, separate high-speed line from Seoul to Mokpo were developed into the project of a line branching from the Gyeongbu HSR and constructed in two stages, the Honam High Speed Railway (Honam HSR). The budget for the 185.75 km first stage, from the new Osong Station on the Gyongbu HSR to Gwangju·Songjeong Station, was set at 8,569.5 billion won. The second stage, the 48.74 km remaining to Mokpo, was to be finished by 2017 with a budget of 2,002.2 billion won. The Osong-Iksan section of the first phase is also intended for use as high-speed test track for rolling stock development, to be fitted with special catenary and instrumented track. The ground-breaking ceremony was held on December 4, 2009. As of September 2010, progress was 9.6% of the project budget then estimated at 10,490.1 billion won for the first phase, which was due for completion in 2014, while the estimate for the entire line stood at 12,101.7 billion won.

Suseo HSR
First plans for the Honam HSR foresaw a terminus in Suseo station, southeast Seoul. The branch to Suseo was re-launched as a separate project, the Suseo High Speed Railway (Suseo HSR), in June 2008. Detailed design of the 61.1 km line is underway since September 2010, with opening planned by the end of 2014. For the longer term, new high-speed lines from Seoul to Sokcho on the eastern coast, and a direct branch from the Gyeongbu HSR south to Jinju and further to the coast are under consideration. In conjunction with the award of the 2018 Winter Olympics to PyeongChang in July 2011, KTX service via the eastern coast line was anticipated; the expected travel time there from Seoul is 50 minutes.

Jeju Island
In January 2009, the Korea Transport Institute also proposed a 167 km line from Mokpo to Jeju Island, putting Jeju 2 hours 26 minutes from Seoul. The line would include a 28 km bridge from Haenam to Bogil Island and a 73 km undersea tunnel from Bogil Island to Jeju Island (with a drilling station on Chuja Island), for an estimated cost of US$10 billion. As the proposal was popular with lawmakers from South Jeolla Province, the government is conducting a feasibility study, but the Jeju governor expressed skepticism. The Seoul-Jeju route is the world's busiest air route with 13.7 million passengers (2023). However, Jeju Gov. Won Hee-ryong opposed this plan since it would ruin the island's identity and make the Jeju economy more dependent on the mainland.

Technology
The shock absorption design absorbs 80 percent of the shock energy when the train crashes. Automatic ventilation is installed to prevent noise from occurring when trains enter and exit the tunnel. Articulated bogies help increase ride comfort and driving safety.

On June 14, 2024, Uzbekistan and South Korea finalized a US$196 million deal for KTX technology to be applied in Uzbekistan. This was the first time KTX technology was exported. As part of the deal, 42 train units capable of going up to 250 km/h were to be supplied for 1216 km of rail in Uzbekistan. Operations were scheduled to begin in April 2027.

KTX-I
The initial KTX-I trainsets, also known as simply KTX or as TGV-K, are based on the TGV Réseau, but with several differences. 46 trains were built - the initial twelve in France by Alstom, the remainder in South Korea by Rotem. The 20-car electric multiple units consist of two traction heads, which are powered end cars without passenger compartments, and eighteen articulated passenger cars, of which the two extreme ones have one motorised bogie each. A KTX-I was built to carry up to 935 passengers at a regular top speed of 300 km/h, later increased to 305 km/h.

KTX-Sancheon
For less frequented relations and for operational flexibility, a 2001 study proposed a train created by scaling down the planned commercial version of the HSR-350x, by shortening the train, removing powered bogies from intermediate cars, and lowering top speed. Hyundai Rotem received orders for altogether 24 such trains, called KTX-II, in three batches from July 2006 to December 2008.

Design speed is 330 km/h, and revenue service speed is 305 km/h. The power electronics uses newer technology than the HSR-350x, and the front is a new design, too. The trainsets, of which two can be coupled together, consist of two traction heads and eight articulated passenger cars, and seat 363 passengers in two classes, with enhanced comfort relative to the KTX-I. The domestic added value of the trains was increased to 87%, compared to 58% for the KTX-I. Imported parts include the pantographs, semiconductors in the power electronics, front design, couplers and final drives.

The train was developed on the basis of the transferred TGV technology, but more advanced technology was used for the new motors, power electronics and additional brake systems, while the passenger cars were made of aluminum to save weight, and the nose was a new design with reduced aerodynamic drag. Test runs were conducted between 2002 and 2008, in the course of which HSR-350x achieved the South Korean rail speed record of 352.4 km/h on December 16, 2004.

The KTX-II was officially renamed as KTX-Sancheon after the Korean name of the indigenous fish cherry salmon before the first units started commercial service on March 2, 2010.

However within weeks of its initial launch, mechanical and design flaws began to appear, in some cases causing trains to stop running and forcing passengers to leave the train and walk back to the station, and in one particular case derailing from the tracks on February 11, 2011. Although the trains were designed to be a domestically built replacement for the French built Alstrom trains, due to over 30 malfunctions since March 2, 2010, Korail asked manufacturer Hyundai-Rotem to recall all 19 of the trains in operation after finding cracks in two anchor bands in May 2011. Following the recall, the KTX-Sancheon trains were put back in service.

In addition to the 24 initial KTX-Sancheon trains, which form the KTX-Sancheon Class 11, new batches have been ordered and delivered since, to provide service on the new Honam, Suseo and Gyeonggang lines. For the opening of the Honam HSR line, 22 trainsets, named Class 12, were delivered ahead of the 2015 opening. In addition, 10 trainsets have been delivered to provide service on the Suseo line, scheduled to open in December 2016 (Class 13), and 15 trainsets (Class 14) have been ordered for the Gyeonggang Line, which opened in late 2017 ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics

KTX-Eum
The KTX-Eum entered service on Jungang Line on January 4, 2021, operating between electrified section of Cheongnyangni and Andong. A further order of 14 six-car units was placed in December 2016, both orders are to be delivered in 2020–2021.

Operation
Following a phase of test operation, regular KTX service started on April 1, 2004, with a maximum speed of 300 km/h achieved along the finished sections of the Gyeongbu HSR. In response to frequent passenger complaints regarding speeds on the video display staying just below the advertised 300 mark, operating top speed was raised to 305 km/h on November 26, 2007.

Services
KTX services are grouped according to their route, and within the groups, the stopping pattern changes from train to train. KTX trains not deviating from the Seoul–Busan corridor are operated as the Gyeongbu KTX service. In 2004, the new service cut the route length from 441.7 to 408.5 km, and the fastest trains, serving four stations only, cut the minimum Seoul–Busan travel time from the Saemaul's 4 hours 10 minutes to 2 hours 40 minutes. With the extension of the Gyeongbu HSR, from November 1, 2010, the minimum Seoul–Busan travel time reduced to 2 hours 18 minutes, over a travel distance of 423.8 km. From December 1, 2010, Korail added a pair of non-stop trains with a travel time of 2 hours 8 minutes. Once the sections across Daejeon and Daegu are completed, cutting the Seoul–Busan travel distance to 417.5 km, plans foresee a further improvement of the four-stop travel time to 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Because both KTX and conventional trains in South Korea share a rail gauge (unlike in Japan), KTX trains can run on both networks dramatically increasing the number of destinations served.

Some Gyeongbu KTX services use parts of the conventional line paralleling the high-speed line. From June 2007 until October 2010, some trains left the Gyeongbu HSR between Daejeon and Dongdaegu to serve Gimcheon and Gumi before the opening of an extra station for the two cities on the high-speed line. From November 1, 2010, when most Gyeongbu KTX services began to use the new Daegu–Busan high-speed section, some trains remained on the Gyeongbu Line on that section, and additional trains began to use the Gyeongbu Line on the Seoul–Daejeon section to serve Suwon.

KTX trains using the Gyeongbu HSR only from Seoul to Daejeon and continuing all along the Honam Line are operated as the Honam KTX service. In 2004, the new service with a route length of 404.5 km between Yongsan in Seoul and Mokpo cut minimum travel time from 4 hours 42 minutes to 2 hours 58 minutes. By 2017, this time is to be cut further to 1 hours 46 minutes.

On December 15, 2010, the new Gyeongjeon KTX service started with a minimum travel time of 2 hours 54 minutes over the 401.4 km long route between Seoul and Masan. The service is to be extended to Jinju by 2012. A fourth line, the Jeolla KTX service will connect Seoul to Yeosu in 3 hours 7 minutes from September 2011. From 2014, with the completion of the first phase of the Honam HSR, the travel time is reduced further to 2 hours 25 minutes. From 2015, KTX trains are to reach Pohang from Seoul in 1 hour 50 minutes.

Type of seats
KTX offers two classes: First Class and Standard Class. Tickets also specify whether a seat is forward-facing or backward-facing according to the direction of travel. First Class seats are arranged 2+1 across the train and Standard Class seats are configured 2+2. There are special reserved Family seats, which are grouped in four, including 2 forward-facing and 2 backward-facing seats. There are reserved seats and unassigned seats. KTX trains have no restaurant cars or bars, only seat service. From 2006, one car of selected KTX services functions as a moving cinema.

Ticket prices
KTX fares were designed to be about halfway between those for conventional trains and airline tickets. The fare system implemented at the start of service in April 2004 deviated from prices proportional with distance, to favour long-distance trips. On April 25, 2005, fares were selectively reduced for relations under-performing most. From November 1, 2006, due to rising energy prices, Korail applied an 8-10% fare hike for various train services, including 9.5% for KTX. The price of a Seoul-Busan Standard Class ticket increased to 48,100 won. From July 1, 2007, KTX fares were hiked another 6.5%, while those for the slower Saemaeul and Mugunghwa services on the parallel conventional route were raised by 3.5 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively. However, new reduced weekday and unassigned seat fares were also introduced.

After the November 1, 2010, start of service on the Daegu–Busan section of the Gyeongbu HSR, the fare for KTX trains using the new section was set about 8% higher than for the old route via Miryang, while that for the new services via Suwon was set lower.

Discounts
Korail's standard discounts for children, disabled, seniors and groups apply on KTX trains, too. For frequent travellers, Korail's standard discount cards, which are categorised according to age group, apply with the double of the standard discount rates; while discount cards for business and government agency workers apply with the normal rate; both types of discounts are up to 30%. Season period tickets with discounts of up to 60% can also apply to KTX trains.

Discounts for family seats (37.5%) and backward facing seats (5%) are specific to the KTX. In addition to Korail's small general discounts for tickets purchased in a vending machine, via cell phone or the internet, discounts of 5–20% apply to a limited number of seats on KTX trains when purchased in advance. For travellers who transfer to other long-distance trains towards destinations beyond KTX stops, transfer tickets with 30% discount apply. Korail pays a refund for late KTX trains, which reaches 100% for trains with a delay above one hour.

Korea Rail Pass, a period ticket Korail offers to foreigners, also applies to KTX. For passengers using the Korea-Japan Joint Rail Pass, a joint offer of Korail, Japanese railways and ferry services, the discount on KTX trains is 30%.

Forecasts
When the project was launched, KTX was expected to become one of the world's busiest high-speed lines. The first study in 1991 forecast around 200,000 passengers a day in the first year of operation, growing to 330,000 passengers a day twelve years later. In forecasts prepared after the decision to split the project into two phases, the expected first year ridership of Gyeongbu KTX services was reduced by about 40%. With the estimate for the Honam KTX services added to the plan, opening year forecasts ranged between 150,000 and 175,000 passengers a day. Actual initial ridership after the opening of the first phase in 2004 was well short of initial expectations at around half of the final forecast.

In October 2010, before the opening of the second phase, Korail expected ridership to rise from the then current 106,000 to 135,000 passengers a day.

Ridership evolution
KTX was introduced on 1 April 2004. In the first 100 days, daily passenger numbers averaged 70,250, generating an operational revenue of about 2.11 billion won per day, 54% of what was expected. On January 14, 2005, Prime Minister Lee Hae Chan stated that "the launch of KTX was a classic policy failure" due to construction costs significantly above and passenger numbers well below forecasts. However, ridership increased by over a third on the Gyeongbu KTX and over a half on the Honam KTX in two years. Financial break-even was forecast at a ridership level of around 100,000 passengers a day, which was expected by the end of 2006.

The 100 millionth rider was carried after 1116 days of operation on April 22, 2007, when cumulative income stood at 2.78 trillion won. KTX finances moved into the black in 2007. The next year, with revenues equal to US$898 million and costs equal to US$654 million, KTX was Korail's most profitable branch.

By the sixth anniversary in April 2010, KTX trains travelled a total 122.15 million kilometres, carrying 211.01 million passengers. Punctuality gradually improved from 86.7% of trains arriving within 5 minutes of schedule in 2004 to 98.3% in 2009. In 2009, the average daily ridership was 102,700. As of April 2010, the single-day ridership record stood at 178,584 passengers, achieved on January 26, 2009, the Korean New Year.

By the tenth anniversary KTX had travelled a total 240 million kilometres, carrying 414 million passengers.

Market share and effect
The introduction of high-speed services had the strongest effect on long-distance relations with a significant portion of the journey on the high-speed line, like Seoul–Busan: KTX took both the majority of the market and the bulk of rail passengers in the first year already, increasing the total share of rail from around two-fifths to a market dominating two-thirds by 2008. On long-distance relations with significant distances along conventional lines and resulting more modest travel time gains, that is along the Honam Line, the KTX and overall rail market share gain decreases with distance. On medium-distance relations like Seoul–Daejeon, KTX gained market share mostly at the expense of normal rail express services and air traffic, and helped to increase the total share of rail. On short-distance intercity relations line Seoul–Cheonan, due to the modest gains in time and the location of KTX stops outside city cores, KTX gains were at the expense of conventional rail, while intercity rail's modal share was little changed.

By 2007, provincial airports suffered from deficits after a drop in the number of passengers attributed to the KTX. With lower ticket prices, by 2008, KTX has swallowed up around half of the airlines' previous demand between Seoul and Busan (falling from 5.3 million passengers in 2003 to 2.4 million). Though some low-cost carriers failed and withdrew from the route, others still planned to enter competition even at the end of 2008. Budget airlines achieved a 5.6% growth in August 2009 over the same month a year earlier while KTX ridership decreased by 1.3%, a trend change credited to the opening of Seoul Subway Line 9, which improved Gimpo International Airport's connection to southern Seoul.

In the first two months after the launch of the second phase of the Gyeongbu HSR, passenger numbers on flights between Gimpo and Ulsan Airports dropped 35.4% compared to the same period a year earlier, those between Gimpo and Pohang Airports 13.2%. Between Gimpo Airport and Busan's Gimhae International Airport, airline passenger numbers remained stable (+0.2%), as a consequence of a budget airline competing with large discounts and aggressive marketing. In the first month of Gyeongjeon KTX service, express bus services between Seoul and Masan or Changwon experienced 30–40% drops in ridership.

State of infrastructure
Lawmakers criticised the safety of Korail's tunnels after the Ministry of Construction and Transportation submitted data to the National Assembly on June 13, 2005. The ministry added fire prevention standards to high-speed line design standards only in November 2003, thus they weren't applied to the by then finished tunnels of the first phase of KTX. Consequently, few tunnels had emergency exits, and in high-speed railway tunnels, the average walking distance in case of an emergency was 973 m, with a maximum of 3,086 m, against a norm of emergency exits every 500 m in other countries. A contingency plan for fires in KTX tunnels was incorporated into a national disaster manual in November 2005.

On October 5, 2008, it was revealed by lawmakers that inside Hwanghak Tunnel, from December 2004, inspectors have monitored the progression of several cracks and minor track displacements, which continued after maintenance work in March–April 2007 and again in March 2008. The operator claimed that a February 2007 on-site inspection found the problems not safety-relevant, but pledged further maintenance, and an investigation into the causes was launched. Tunnel reinforcement was under way in 2010.

Incidents and accidents
Operation irregularities mostly concerned the rolling stock, but also signalling, power glitches and track problems. The number of incidents decreased from 28 in the first month to 8 in the fifth. The failure rate decreased sharply by the fifth year of operation. Later, in the first eight months of regular service until October 2010, KTX-II trains broke down 12 times. Causes for breakdowns in the first years of operation involved inexperienced staff and insufficient inspection during maintenance.

Lawmakers from the Grand National Party published an investigation in October 2006 and expressed concern about the practice to use parts from other trains for spare parts, but Korail stated that that is standard practice in case of urgency with no safety effect, and the supply of spare parts is secured. Korail is also conducting a localisation program to develop replacements for two dozen imported parts.

On June 13, 2007, near Cheongdo on the upgraded Daegu–Busan section, a damper acting between two cars of a KTX train got free at one end due to a loose screw and hit the trackbed, throwing up ballast that hit cars and caused bruises to two people on the parallel road, until the train was stopped when passengers noticed smoke.

On November 3, 2007, an arriving KTX-I train collided with a parked KTX-I train inside Busan Station, resulting in material damage of 10 billion won and light injuries to two persons. The accident happened because the driver had fallen asleep and disabled the train protection system, and led to the trial and conviction of the driver. The railway union criticised single driver operation in conjunction with the two and a half hours rest time the driver had between shifts.

On February 11, 2011, a KTX-Sancheon train bound for Seoul from Busan derailed on a switch in a tunnel 500 m before Gwangmyeong Station, when travelling at around 90 km/h. No casualties were reported, only one passenger suffered slight injury, but KTX traffic was blocked for 29 hours while repairs were completed. Preliminary investigation indicated that the accident resulted from a series of human errors. Because workers improperly repaired a point along the tracks. Investigators found that the derailment was caused by a switch malfunction triggered by a loose nut from track, and suspected that a repairman failed to tighten it during maintenance the previous night. The switch's detectors signalled a problem earlier, however, a second maintenance crew failed to find the loose nut and didn't properly communicate the fact to the control center, which then allowed the train on the track. The rail union criticised Korail's use of hired repairmen. there were no problems with the train according to investigation.

On July 15, 2011, 150 passengers were evacuated from a train when smoke started coming out of the train when it arrived at Miryang station at 11:30 AM. On July 17, 2011, at around 11 AM, a train stopped abruptly and stranded some 400 passengers in the 9.975 km Hwanghak Tunnel for over an hour. The train resumed service after emergency repairs to a malfunctioning motor. A Korail spokesperson stated that the reason for the stop was due to "faults in the motor block that supplies power to the wheels". The same day, the air conditioning broke down on another train leaving Busan at 1:45 PM. Over 800 passengers were transferred to another train at Daejeon when the problem could not be fixed.

On December 7, 2018, a KTX train carrying 198 passengers derailed about five minutes after leaving Gangneung for Seoul injuring 15 passengers. The train was traveling at about 103 km/h when almost all of its cars left the rails.

On January 5, 2022, a KTX-Sancheon train bound for Busan from Seoul carrying 303 passengers and crew derailed at 12:58 PM while passing a tunnel in Yeongdong of North Chungcheong Province, about 215 kilometers south of Seoul, injuring 7 passengers. The train was traveling at about 200 km/h when it partially derailed, resulting in a bogie wheel from car number 4 running off the track before being violently ejected from the train, throwing up ballast and causing structural damage to train cars. Subsequent KTX traffic was rerouted via the standard line, resulting in severe delays. Initially, it was believed that the derailment was caused by the train colliding with debris while passing Yeongdong Tunnel. However, evidence gathered from further investigation show that the missing bogie wheel was found inside Otan Tunnel, which is about 4 km before Yeongdong Tunnel, leading the investigating team to believe the train derailed due to faults within the wheel bogie assembly rather than from impact with debris.

Passenger comfort and convenience
Passenger surveys in the first months found that the limited capacity of bus connections and the lack of subway connections for intermediate stations, especially the newly built stations Gwangmyeong and Cheonan-Asan, was the problem mentioned most often. A better connection to Cheonan-Asan Station was provided by an extension of Seoul Subway Line 1 along the Janghang Line, opened on December 14, 2008. Gwangmyeong Station was linked to the same subway line by a shuttle service on December 15, 2006, but it made little impact due to the longtime differences between KTX and subway train schedules.

The noise level in the trains during tunnel passages was also subject to passenger complaints. This was referred to as a tunnel effect; it referred to both noise and vibration of the train when traveling through two specific tunnels. The tunnel effect was specifically noted as a reason for passenger dissatisfaction. Sound waves that are generally dispersed in an open environment are reflected against the tunnel walls, which causes the sound waves to come in contact with the passenger cabin and produces noise.

A reduction by 3–4 dB was achieved by retrofitting all trains with longer mud flaps at car ends until May 2006 to smooth the airflow at the articulated car joints. However, measurements in 2009 found significantly higher interior noise levels at some locations in two tunnels. Window thickness and sound insulation was improved in the KTX-II. The rails for high-speed trains like the KTX are welded together via a special techniques that make the rail a solid continuous rail; this method reduces the noise volume, which is produced by the wheels' contact with the rail, but it is not fully eliminated.

The isolation of KTX-I trains against pressure variations during tunnel passages was insufficient for some passengers, leading to efforts to reinforce pressurization in newer generations of trains. Pressure variations have been known to cause passengers to experience ringing in their ears; the ventilation systems on the passenger cabins are sealed when the train enters a tunnel in order to reduce the pressure changes. Pressure variations were not the only train cabin-associated complaint; KTX passengers were also known to have been negatively affected by inconsistent speeds of the trains.

Some KTX passengers found high-speed travel in backwards facing seats dizzying. Along with dizziness, feelings of nausea, headache, and sleepiness could also be experienced. Motion sickness was also noted as having had a minimal effect on KTX passengers; however, it still made an impact on passenger ride comfort. When the original seats were selected for the KTX trains, the anthropometry of the main consumers, who were largely expected to be Korean, were not considered. The seat design was found to have a significant effect on how passengers on the KTX trains rated the experience of their trip. Among the various factors that were considered to be vectors of discomfort were the angle of joints and specific areas of pressure, which were discovered to be present after an analysis of questionnaires that were completed by recent passengers. The factors of the seats of concern to KTX passengers were the shape, pitch, width, and the amount of legroom between the rows of seats. Swivel seats, which can be turned into the direction of travel, installed only on First Class in KTX-I trains, were made standard on both classes on newer generations of trains.

Studies have shown that term "ride comfort" has been used as an all-encompassing term for the KTX passengers' over all experience on the trains. While the KTX train is based on the French TGV model, it is considered to be more comfortable. The passengers' overall experience with regards to over-all ride comfort has been looked at as a combination of their physical health and emotional state. Fares were not included in the aforementioned questionnaires on ride comfort as there were variations in pricing due to seat arrangement, as well as weekday/weekend rates.

title: Korea Train Express


text:
Woleai

Woleai, also known as Oleai, is a coral atoll of 22 islands in the western Caroline Islands in the Pacific Ocean, forming a legislative district in the Yap State in the Federated States of Micronesia, and located approximately 57 km west-northwest of Ifalik and 108 km northeast of Eauripik. Woleai is also the name of the largest of the islets constituting the atoll, lying to the northeast.

The population of the atoll was 1,081 in 2000, on an area of 4.5 km2.

Geography
The islands constitute a double atoll forming the number eight, with a total length of 11.5 km and up to 7 km wide; however, most of reef on the southern rim is submerged or poorly developed. The northern and eastern rims have several relatively large islets. The western lagoon is deeper and larger than its eastern counterpart. Both components are part of the same seamount. The total land area for both components combined is only 4.5 km2.

History
The Austronesian ancestors of the Micronesians who make up the indigenous population of the Caroline Islands arrived in the islands c. 0-200 CE. Woleai subsequently became culturally unique among the Caroline Islands because of a script in use among some speakers of the Woleaian language prior to 1913. Woleai was among islands to the southeast of Yap that became tributaries of the Yapese Empire from about 1500 CE.

Woleai came under the control of the Spanish Empire in 1686, governed along with the rest of the Caroline Islands as part of the Spanish East Indies. Spain sold the islands to the German Empire in 1899. In 1914, in the early weeks of World War I, the Empire of Japan seized German possessions in the Pacific, including Woleai. Assigned a League of Nations mandate to administer the islands after the war in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, Japan subsequently administered Woleai under the South Seas Mandate.

In 1944, as Allied forces closed in on the Mariana Islands during World War II, a contingent of 6,426 troops from the Imperial Japanese Army's 50th Independent Mixed Brigade and the Imperial Japanese Navy's 44th Base Guard Unit and 216th Base Construction Unit heavily fortified Woleai. They completely leveled Wolfe Islet and made it into an airfield with a single 3,290 ft runway and 2,050 ft taxiway. They also constructed a seaplane anchorage off the southwest corner of Woleai Islet and established a weather station on Mariaon island to the west. Allied aircraft bombed the atoll and its military facilities on numerous occasions until the middle of 1945, driving its defenders underground and isolating them from supplies or reinforcements. By the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, only 1,650 survivors remained of the initial 6,426-strong Japanese garrison, the rest having perished largely because of starvation and disease rather than directly in Allied air raids. The United States Navy destroyer escort USS Sloat (DE-245) picked up the surviving Japanese on September 17, 1945.

Following World War II, the atoll came under the control of the United States. The United States administered Woleai as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, a United Nations trust territory, from 1947 until 1979, when Woleai became part of the independent Federated States of Micronesia.

Education
Public schools:
 * Woleai High School

Transportation
Woleai Civil Airfield, administered by the Federated States of Micronesia Division of Civil Aviation is located at an altitude of 2 m on Falalap at 7.37666°N, 143.90833°W, 681 km southeast of Yap International Airport and 0.44 km northeast of the main settlements on the island. The 1200 ft runway has not been maintained since 1992, and the airfield has closed due to severe deterioration of the runway and the government's decision not to perform repairs. The runway is now covered with vegetation. Before the airfield closed, Caroline Islands Air provided chartered flights to it. The runway was built by the Empire of Japan during World War II. After the war it was shortly US Naval Base Woleai, Fleet Post Office #3246.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Woleai


text:
Soft single skin kite

Soft single skin kites are the least complex of all the power kites.

The best known design is the NASA Parawing or NPW. For more, see rogallo wing. This is a very simple kite with mixed performance. It has excellent pull, but is slow to maneuver and suffers from a limited wind window. Its simple construction and forgiving design make it very popular among hobbyists and some traction enthusiasts, especially ski- and sledge-borne expeditions across both Arctic and Antarctic lands, but its drawbacks make it unsuitable for high efficiency and many water-borne sports.

There are also soft single skin kites designed to be used on sailing ships as a free flying spinnaker substitute. There are significant advantages to having the spinnaker catching wind further above the surface of the water than is normal. This design was tested in the 2002 Louis Vuitton Regatta by the Oracle Americas Cup team.

title: Soft single skin kite


text:
Talk:German cuisine

Drinking water
"Regulations are even stricter than those for bottled water (see Trinkwasserverordnung)." is not correct. The TrinkwV "Gesundheitsamt" is different to the Mineral- und TafelwasserVO. The limits of certain Elements in each water are different. Not only a difference for the responsibility "Lebensmittelbehörde" or "Gesundheitsamt" exists, but also the place where the samples are taken (Quellort or Wasseraubereitungsanlage / spring/well place or Waterpreperation feed) and how much time between taking the sample and analysing it can there be. Of course, all the waterqualitys are exellent. It depends on the parameters which one is better for which use. Mineralwasser for example is allowed a tick to be more radioactive than Trinkwasser and Trinkwasser is allowed to have a tick more heavy metal than Mineralwaaser. A tick means a very little bit. In some points one of the "Verordnungen" is a little stricter than the other. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.212.210.34 (talk) 20:16, 6 February 2022 (UTC)

AI image for an "Early picture of a hot dog"?!
Were there absolutely no non-AI generated images of hotdogs available? Not even: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hot_Dog_in_Berlin.jpg

Which is already in use on the page about Hot Dogs in general, with the bonus of it actually being from Germany.

On top of using an AI image, then a caption saying it's an "Early Picture"? From when? Early makes it sound like it should be one of the first hotdogs photographed around the invention/mass production of the camera, not some rubbish dreamt up by a computer in March 2023.

Simply put it should just be a normal picture of a preferably German hot dog, how is there no rule for this kind of thing? 193.32.248.203 (talk) 19:31, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

 * P.s. tried editing it, not in revision history as having been undone as it doesn't seem to be going through at all 193.32.248.203 (talk) 19:59, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

Replaced with the image you linked, no idea why User:BauhausFan89 added the AI image of a more American-style hot dog. Reywas92Talk 20:10, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:German cuisine


text:
Signature dish

A signature dish is a recipe that identifies an individual chef or restaurant. Ideally it should be unique and allow an informed gastronome to name the chef in a blind tasting. It can be thought of as the culinary equivalent of an artist finding their own style, or an author finding their own voice. In practice a chef's signature dish often changes with time or they may claim several signature dishes.

In a weaker sense, a signature dish may become associated with an individual restaurant, particularly if the chef who created it is no longer with the establishment. It can also be used to refer to a culinary region, in which case its meaning may be the equivalent of "national dish". In many cases, restaurants will base their menu development on tastes and styles which are unique to the restaurant's geographical location. Local produce, restaurant décor, and even the type of building you choose can all contribute to a larger yield by taking on local sensibilities.

At its weakest, the term can simply mean "chef's specials" which are in no way unique or even particularly unusual.

Examples

 * Franz Sacher - sachertorte
 * Albert Roux - Soufflé Suissesse
 * Gordon Ramsay - Cappuccino of white beans with grated truffles
 * Heston Blumenthal - snail porridge
 * Fergus Henderson - roast bone marrow with parsley salad
 * Daniel Boulud - Crisp paupiettes of sea bass in Barolo sauce
 * The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City - Waldorf salad
 * Hotel Tatin, Lamotte-Beuvron, France - Tarte Tatin

title: Signature dish


text:
Brigid Berlin

Brigid Emmett Berlin (September 6, 1939 – July 17, 2020) was an American artist and Warhol superstar.

Early years
Berlin was born on September 6, 1939, in Manhattan in New York City. She was the eldest of three daughters born to socialite parents, Muriel (Johnson) "Honey" Berlin and Richard E. Berlin. Her father was chairman of the Hearst media empire for 32 years.

As a child, Berlin regularly mixed with celebrities and the powerful: "I would pick up the phone and it would be Richard Nixon. My parents entertained Lyndon Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, and there were lots of Hollywood people because of San Simeon – Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Dorothy Kilgallen... I have a box of letters, written to my parents in the late 1940s and 1950s from the Duke and Duchess of Windsor."

Her socialite mother frequently worried about Brigid's weight and constantly attempted to get her to lose it through any means, from giving her cash for every pound she lost at age 11 to having the family doctor prescribe amphetamines and dexedrine. Berlin recalled, "My mother wanted me to be a slim, respectable socialite. Instead, I became an overweight troublemaker."

She was briefly married to John Parker, a window dresser. They married in 1960 and later divorced. As Andy Warhol observed in his book Popism: "When Brigid brought her window dresser fiancé home to meet the family, her mother told the doorman to tell him to wait on a bench across the street in Central Park. Then she handed Brigid her wedding present – a hundred dollar bill – and told her to go to Bergdorf's and buy herself some new underwear with it. Then she added, 'Good luck with that fairy.'"

She had three siblings, all younger: sister Richie, who was, for a time, the roommate of Warhol Films' "It Girl" and superstar Edie Sedgwick; youngest sister Christina "Chrissy" Berlin, who was instrumental in engineering the defection of Russian ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov; and the youngest sibling, brother Richard Berlin Jr.

Association with Andy Warhol
After several years as a reluctant debutante and a failed marriage, Brigid Berlin met Andy Warhol in 1964 and quickly became a central member of his entourage. After moving to Hotel Chelsea, she took on the nickname Brigid Polk because of her habit of giving out 'pokes', injections of Vitamin B and amphetamines. These injections were readily available through the many 'Doctor Feelgoods' in New York and perfectly legal.

Berlin appeared in several of Warhol's films, including Chelsea Girls (1966), in which she is seen injecting herself while performing a monologue, and Ciao! Manhattan (1972), which starred Edie Sedgwick. Decades later, she appeared in minor parts in two John Waters' films: Serial Mom (1994) and Pecker (1998). Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story (2000) is a documentary in which she tells her life story in intimate detail and breaks her diet by consuming an entire meal of key lime pies. In its review, Variety suggests "Berlin comes across as a rather sad character despite her colorful and provocative life."

She was known for her obsessive taping and photographing of everyday life. Selections from these tapes were later compiled by Anthony Ingrassia to form the play Andy Warhol's Pork. Other tapes made by her were the basis for Live at Max's Kansas City (recorded 1970, released 1972), The Velvet Underground's first live album.

Berlin was complicit in one of Warhol's more infamous pranks when, in 1969, Warhol announced that all of his paintings were the work of Berlin. Brigid enthusiastically followed this line when interviewed by Time. The prank led to a drop in the value of Warhol's work, and both parties eventually retracted their statements. The question of authorship looms large in valuing Warhol's paintings to this day.

In 1975, Berlin began work as a permanent employee for Andy Warhol's Interview magazine, a position that she held until well after Warhol's death. Berlin transcribed interviews as well as knitted under the desk. Patricia Hearst (a close friend of Berlin who began work at Interview in 1988) observed "On my first day at work, I noticed two small pugs who seemed to have the run of the castle. They belonged to a woman who sat behind the front desk every day from 9:00 to 5:00, but who never seemed to answer the phone. Instead, she compulsively knitted, ate bags of candy and tended lovingly to the dogs."

Artwork
Berlin was also a prolific artist. Therein it has been argued by some that her artwork was both influential to Andy Warhol's and simultaneously overshadowed by Warhol's celebrity and output. Berlin's "Tit Prints" were artworks created using her bare breasts. Berlin would dip her breasts into multiple colored paints and then create a print by pressing them down onto canvas/paper. The Tit Prints are arguably Berlin's most infamous work and were exhibited by Jane Stubbs at a gallery on Madison Avenue in 1996. On occasion, Berlin would publicly create Tit Prints, integrating visual art and performance art that "is totally not about nudity, this is about, you know, art." She performed this act live at the Gramercy International Art Fair. After experiencing the performance, filmmaker John Waters later said "I think that she's the most unselfconscious nude person...[She has] great confidence for a fat girl."

Berlin also compiled and maintained scrapbooks that she referred to as "trip books." Volumes of these scrapbooks collecting cartoons and sketches of male genitalia were known as "The Cock Book" and included the genitalia of artists such as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Warhol. Three volumes of "The Cock Book" sold for $175,000 at auction to artist Richard Prince.

Both Berlin and Warhol used the medium of Polaroid photography obsessively, and are said to have been very competitive in the Polaroid film department, whether over the best equipment or the best film. In 1969–1970 German art dealer Heiner Friedrich did a small showing of Berlin's work called Polaroids and Tapes and created a catalogue for the work of the same name. The experimental nature of Berlin's double-exposed Polaroids transcend the static, emotionless "icon" Polaroids of Warhol's, clearly showing the power of her personal vision and photographic style. Common subject matter of Berlin's Polaroids are self-portraits, Warhol Superstars, other artists and celebrities, and Off-Broadway one-woman shows. A one-woman show of her Polaroid self-portraits titled "It's All About Me" showed in 2015 at the Invisible-Exports Gallery in New York City. The New York Times review stated "Ms. Berlin's prints seem less of a lark and more like a strident, celebratory statement by an artist who was never shy about exposing...well, anything."

Berlin's digitized archives were published in 2015 as Brigid Berlin Polaroids with a foreword by John Waters. A review of the book in the Wall Street Journal notes that Berlin was also the first person Andy Warhol allowed to photograph his body after the 1968 assassination attempt.

Filmography

 * Chelsea Girls (1966)
 * Tub Girls (1967)
 * Bike Boy (1967)
 * The Nude Restaurant (1967)
 * Imitation of Christ (1967)
 * Four Stars**** (1967) aka 24 Hour Movie
 * Lonesome Cowboys (1967) (originally Berlin was to play a leader of a rival gang of cowboys)
 * The Loves of Ondine (1967)
 * Women in Revolt (1971)
 * Ciao! Manhattan (1972)
 * Phoney (1973)
 * Fight (1975)
 * Andy Warhol's Bad (1977)
 * The Critical Years (1987)
 * Serial Mom (1994)
 * Pecker (1998)
 * Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story (1999)
 * Danny Williams and the Dream Factory (documentary, 2007)

title: Brigid Berlin


text:
Iconography

Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct from artistic style. The word iconography comes from the Greek εἰκών ("image") and γράφειν ("to write" or to draw).

A secondary meaning (based on a non-standard translation of the Greek and Russian equivalent terms) is the production or study of the religious images, called "icons", in the Byzantine and Orthodox Christian tradition. This usage is mostly found in works translated from languages such as Greek or Russian, with the correct term being "icon painting".

In art history, "an iconography" may also mean a particular depiction of a subject in terms of the content of the image, such as the number of figures used, their placing and gestures. The term is also used in many academic fields other than art history, for example semiotics, media studies, and archaeology, and in general usage, for the content of images, the typical depiction in images of a subject, and related senses.

Sometimes distinctions have been made between iconology and iconography, although the definitions, and so the distinction made, varies. When referring to movies, genres are immediately recognizable through their iconography, motifs that become associated with a specific genre through repetition.

Foundations
Early Western writers who took special note of the content of images include Giorgio Vasari, whose Ragionamenti interpreted the paintings in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Ragionamenti reassuringly demonstrates that such works were difficult to understand even for well-informed contemporaries. Lesser known, though it had informed poets, painters and sculptors for over two centuries after its 1593 publication, was Cesare Ripa's emblem book Iconologia. Gian Pietro Bellori, a 17th-century biographer of artists of his own time, describes and analyses, not always correctly, many works. Lessing's study (1796) of the classical figure Amor with an inverted torch was an early attempt to use a study of a type of image to explain the culture it originated in, rather than the other way round. Iconography as an academic art historical discipline developed in the nineteenth century in the works of scholars such as Adolphe Napoleon Didron (1806–1867), Anton Heinrich Springer (1825–1891), and Émile Mâle (1862–1954) all specialists in Christian religious art, which was the main focus of study in this period, in which French scholars were especially prominent. They looked back to earlier attempts to classify and organise subjects encyclopedically like Cesare Ripa and Anne Claude Philippe de Caylus's Recueil d'antiquités égyptiennes, étrusques, grècques, romaines et gauloises as guides to understanding works of art, both religious and profane, in a more scientific manner than the popular aesthetic approach of the time. These early contributions paved the way for encyclopedias, manuals, and other publications useful in identifying the content of art. Mâle's l'Art religieux du XIIIe siècle en France (originally 1899, with revised editions) translated into English as The Gothic Image, Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century has remained continuously in print.

Twentieth century
In early twentieth-century Germany, Aby Warburg (1866–1929) and his followers Fritz Saxl (1890–1948) and Erwin Panofsky (1892–1968) elaborated the practice of identification and classification of motifs in images to using iconography as a means to understanding meaning. Panofsky codified an influential approach to iconography in his 1939 Studies in Iconology, where he defined it as "the branch of the history of art which concerns itself with the subject matter or meaning of works of art, as opposed to form," although the distinction he and other scholars drew between particular definitions of "iconography" (put simply, the identification of visual content) and "iconology" (the analysis of the meaning of that content), has not been generally accepted, though it is still used by some writers.

In the United States, to which Panofsky immigrated in 1931, students such as Frederick Hartt, and Meyer Schapiro continued under his influence in the discipline. In an influential article of 1942, Introduction to an "Iconography of Mediaeval Architecture", Richard Krautheimer, a specialist on early medieval churches and another German émigré, extended iconographical analysis to architectural forms.

The period from 1940 can be seen as one where iconography was especially prominent in art history. Whereas most iconographical scholarship remains highly dense and specialized, some analyses began to attract a much wider audience, for example Panofsky's theory (now generally out of favour with specialists of that picture) that the writing on the rear wall in the Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck turned the painting into the record of a marriage contract. Holbein's The Ambassadors has been the subject of books for a general market with new theories as to its iconography, and the best-sellers of Dan Brown include theories, disowned by most art historians, on the iconography of works by Leonardo da Vinci.

The method of iconology, which had developed following the publications of Erwin Panofsky, has been critically discussed since the mid-1950s, in part also strongly (Otto Pächt, Svetlana Alpers). However, among the critics, no one has found a model of interpretation that could completely replace that of Panofsky.

As regards the interpretation of Christian art, that Panofsky researched throughout his life, the iconographic interest in texts as possible sources remains important, because the meaning of Christian images and architecture is closely linked to the content of biblical, liturgical and theological texts, which were usually considered authoritative by most patrons, artists and viewers.

Technological advances allowed the building-up of huge collections of photographs, with an iconographic arrangement or index, which include those of the Warburg Institute and the Index of Medieval Art (formerly Index of Christian Art) at Princeton (which has made a specialism of iconography since its early days in America). These are now being digitised and made available online, usually on a restricted basis. With the arrival of computing, the Iconclass system, a highly complex way of classifying the content of images, with 28,000 classification types, and 14,000 keywords, was developed in the Netherlands as a standard classification for recording collections, with the idea of assembling huge databases that will allow the retrieval of images featuring particular details, subjects or other common factors. For example, the Iconclass code "71H7131" is for the subject of "Bathsheba (alone) with David's letter", whereas "71" is the whole "Old Testament" and "71H" the "story of David". A number of collections of different types have been classified using Iconclass, notably many types of old master print, the collections of the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin and the German Marburger Index. These are available, usually on-line or on DVD. The system can also be used outside pure art history, for example on sites like Flickr.

Brief survey of iconography

Religious images are used to some extent by all major religions, including both Indian and Abrahamic faiths, and often contain highly complex iconography, which reflects centuries of accumulated tradition. Secular Western iconography later drew upon these themes.

Indian religious iconography
Central to the iconography and hagiography of Indian religions are mudra or gestures with specific meanings. Other features include the aureola and halo, also found in Christian and Islamic art, and divine qualities and attributes represented by asana and ritual tools such as the dharmachakra, vajra, chhatra, sauwastika, phurba and danda. The symbolic use of colour to denote the Classical Elements or Mahabhuta and letters and bija syllables from sacred alphabetic scripts are other features. Under the influence of tantra art developed esoteric meanings, accessible only to initiates; this is an especially strong feature of Tibetan art. The art of Indian Religions esp. Hindus in its numerous sectoral divisions is governed by sacred texts called the Aagama which describes the ratio and proportion of the icon, called taalmaana as well as mood of the central figure in a context. For example, Narasimha an incarnation of Vishnu though considered a wrathful deity but in few contexts is depicted in pacified mood.

Although iconic depictions of, or concentrating on, a single figure are the dominant type of Buddhist image, large stone relief or fresco narrative cycles of the Life of the Buddha, or tales of his previous lives, are found at major sites like Sarnath, Ajanta, and Borobudor, especially in earlier periods. Conversely, in Hindu art, narrative scenes have become rather more common in recent centuries, especially in miniature paintings of the lives of Krishna and Rama.

Christian iconography
Christian art features Christian iconography, prominently developed in the medieval era and renaissance, and is a prominent aspect of Christian media. Aniconism was rejected within Christian theology from the outset, and the development of early Christian art and architecture occurred within the first seven centuries after Jesus. Small images in the Catacombs of Rome show orans figures, portraits of Christ and some saints, and a limited number of "abbreviated representations" of biblical episodes emphasizing deliverance. From the Constantinian period monumental art borrowed motifs from Roman Imperial imagery, classical Greek and Roman religion and popular art – the motif of Christ in Majesty owes something to both Imperial portraits and depictions of Zeus. In the Late Antique period iconography began to be standardized, and to relate more closely to Biblical texts, although many gaps in the canonical Gospel narratives were plugged with matter from the apocryphal gospels. Eventually, the Church would succeed in weeding most of these out, but some remain, like the ox and ass in the Nativity of Christ. After the period of Byzantine iconoclasm iconographical innovation was regarded as unhealthy, if not heretical, in the Eastern Church, though it still continued at a glacial pace. More than in the West, traditional depictions were often considered to have authentic or miraculous origins, and the job of the artist was to copy them with as little deviation as possible. The Eastern church also never accepted the use of monumental high relief or free-standing sculpture, which it found too reminiscent of paganism. Most modern Eastern Orthodox icons are very close to their predecessors of a thousand years ago, though development, and some shifts in meaning, have occurred – for example, the old man wearing a fleece in conversation with Saint Joseph usually seen in Orthodox Nativities seems to have begun as one of the shepherds, or the prophet Isaiah, but is now usually understood as the "Tempter" (Satan).

In both East and West, numerous iconic types of Christ, Mary and saints and other subjects were developed; the number of named types of icons of Mary, with or without the infant Christ, was especially large in the East, whereas Christ Pantocrator was much the commonest image of Christ. Especially important depictions of Mary include the Hodegetria and Panagia types. Traditional models evolved for narrative paintings, including large cycles covering the events of the Life of Christ, the Life of the Virgin, parts of the Old Testament, and, increasingly, the lives of popular saints. Especially in the West, a system of attributes developed for identifying individual figures of saints by a standard appearance and symbolic objects held by them; in the East, they were more likely to identified by text labels.

From the Romanesque period sculpture on churches became increasingly important in Western art, and probably partly because of the lack of Byzantine models, became the location of much iconographic innovation, along with the illuminated manuscript, which had already taken a decisively different direction from Byzantine equivalents, under the influence of Insular art and other factors. Developments in theology and devotional practice produced innovations like the subject of the Coronation of the Virgin and the Assumption, Both associated with the Franciscans, as were many other developments. Most painters remained content to copy and slightly modify the works of others, and it is clear that the clergy, by whom or for whose churches most art was commissioned, often specified what they wanted shown in great detail.

The theory of typology, by which the meaning of most events of the Old Testament was understood as a "type" or pre-figuring of an event in the life of, or aspect of, Christ or Mary was often reflected in art, and in the later Middle Ages came to dominate the choice of Old Testament scenes in Western Christian art. Whereas in the Romanesque and Gothic periods the great majority of religious art was intended to convey often complex religious messages as clearly as possible, with the arrival of Early Netherlandish painting iconography became highly sophisticated, and in many cases appears to be deliberately enigmatic, even for a well-educated contemporary. The subtle layers of meaning uncovered by modern iconographical research in works of Robert Campin such as the Mérode Altarpiece, and of Jan van Eyck such as the Madonna of Chancellor Rolin and the Washington Annunciation lie in small details of what are on first viewing very conventional representations. When Italian painting developed a taste for enigma, considerably later, it most often showed in secular compositions influenced by Renaissance Neo-Platonism.

From the 15th century religious painting gradually freed itself from the habit of following earlier compositional models, and by the 16th century ambitious artists were expected to find novel compositions for each subject, and direct borrowings from earlier artists are more often of the poses of individual figures than of whole compositions. The Reformation soon restricted most Protestant religious painting to Biblical scenes conceived along the lines of history painting, and after some decades the Catholic Council of Trent reined in somewhat the freedom of Catholic artists.

Secular Western iconography
Secular painting became far more common in the West from the Renaissance, and developed its own traditions and conventions of iconography, in history painting, which includes mythologies, portraits, genre scenes, and even landscapes, not to mention modern media and genres like photography, cinema, political cartoons, comic books.

Renaissance mythological painting was in theory reviving the iconography of its Classical Antiquity, but in practice themes like Leda and the Swan developed on largely original lines, and for different purposes. Personal iconographies, where works appear to have significant meanings individual to, and perhaps only accessible by, the artist, go back at least as far as Hieronymous Bosch, but have become increasingly significant with artists like Goya, William Blake, Gauguin, Picasso, Frida Kahlo, and Joseph Beuys.

In disciplines other than art history
Iconography, often of aspects of popular culture, is a concern of other academic disciplines including Semiotics, Anthropology, Sociology, Media Studies, Communication Studies, and Cultural Studies. These analyses in turn have affected conventional art history, especially concepts such as signs in semiotics. Discussing imagery as iconography in this way implies a critical "reading" of imagery that often attempts to explore social and cultural values. Iconography is also used within film studies to describe the visual language of cinema, particularly within the field of genre criticism. In the age of Internet, the new global history of the visual production of Humanity (Histiconologia ) includes History of Art and history of all kind of images or medias.

Contemporary iconography research often draws on theories of visual framing to address such diverse issues as the iconography of climate change created by different stakeholders, the iconography that international organizations create about natural disasters, the iconography of epidemics disseminated in the press, and the iconography of suffering found in social media.

An iconography study in communication science analyzed stock photos used in press reporting to depict the social issue of child sexual abuse. Based on a sample of N=1,437 child sexual abuse (CSA) online press articles that included 419 stock photos, a CSA iconography (i.e. a set of typical image motifs for a topic) was revealed that relate to criminal reporting: The CSA iconography visualizes 1. crime contexts, 2. course of the crime and people involved, and 3. consequences of the crime for the people involved (e.g., image motif: perpetrator in handcuffs).

Articles with iconographical analysis of individual works

 * Castelseprio frescoes
 * The Flagellation by Piero della Francesca
 * The Wilton Diptych
 * The Mérode Altarpiece by Robert Campin
 * Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, Arnolfini Portrait, Annunciation, all by Jan van Eyck
 * Virgin and Child Enthroned by Rogier van der Weyden
 * The Magdalen Reading by Rogier van der Weyden
 * St. Jerome in His Study by Antonello da Messina
 * Two Venetian Ladies and St. Augustine in His Study by Vittore Carpaccio
 * Melencolia I by Albrecht Dürer
 * Marie de' Medici cycle by Rubens
 * Ivan Rutkovych

Examples

 * Hindu iconography
 * Urban iconography

title: Iconography