After 12 years of construction work, the nation's first "bullet train"has kicked off commercial service, making history in the nation's railway era.

The KTX 74 left Busan early Thursday morning and shortly after another 300-kilometer-per-hour train departed the capital bound for the southeastern port city. On the Seoul-Busan route, the bullet trains will operate 64 times a day, cutting travel time on the 410 kilometer section to two hours and 40 minutes, nearly half the time taken by conventional trains.

Also early Thursday morning, the bullet train went into commercialservice on the Honam Line, linking Seoul and the southwestern city of Mokpo.

The Korea National Railroad predicts that the launch of the high-speed railway service will save the nation two trillion won in logistics costs annually.

In particular, once the second-stage of the mammoth project is concluded in 2010, the trip on the Seoul-Busan line would take only one hour and 56 minutes.