The Gyeongnam Line (慶南線, ''Keinan-sen'') was a railway line of the

Chōsen Railway The Chōsen Railway Company (Japanese: 朝鮮鉄道株式会社, ''Chōsen Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha''; Korean: 조선철도주식회사, ''Joseon Cheoldo Jusikhoesa''), was a privately owned railway company in Japanese-occupied Korea. History T ...

(''Chōtetsu'') of colonial-era Korea, located in

South Gyeongsang Province South Gyeongsang Province ( ko, 경상남도, translit=Gyeongsangnam-do, ) is a province in the southeast of South Korea. The provincial capital is at Changwon. It is adjacent to the major metropolitan center and port of Busan. The UNESCO World H ...

History

On 13 July 1918, the privately owned Chōsen Southern Railway was granted a concession to build a railway line from Songjeongni (now Gwangju Songjeong) to

Masan Masan is an administrative region of Changwon, a city in the South Gyeongsang Province. It was formerly an independent city from 1949 until 30 June 2010, when it was absorbed to Changwon along with Jinhae. Masan was redistricted as two distric ...

, but it wasn't until June 1922 that work on the first section, from Masan to

Jinju Jinju () is a city in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. It was the location of the first (1592) and second (1593) Sieges of Jinju by Japanese forces during the Imjin War. The Republic of Korea Air Force Education and Training Command i ...

, began. The line was not yet opened when the Chōsen Southern Railway merged with five other privately owned railways to create the Chōsen Railway on 1 September 1923;Establishment of the Chosen Railway
Dong-A Ilbo, 3 September 1923 (in Korean) it was only three months after the merger, on 1 December 1923, that the first section, from Masan to Gunbuk, was opened, under the name Gyeongnam Line. The remaining section to Jinju was opened on 15 June 1925. On 1 April 1931, the state-owned

Chōsen Government Railway The ( ko, 조선총독부 철도, Joseon Chongdokbu Cheoldo) was a state-owned railway company in Chōsen. It was also colloquially known by the abbreviated name . It was the operational division of the ( ko, 철도국, ''Cheoldoguk''), which ...

bought the Gyeongnam Line, merging it with its own

Masan Line Masan is an administrative region of Changwon, a city in the South Gyeongsang Province. It was formerly an independent city from 1949 until 30 June 2010, when it was absorbed to Changwon along with Jinhae. Masan was redistricted as two district ...

to create the Gyeongjeon Nambu Line running from

Samnangjin Samnangjin (also spelled Samrangjin) or Samnangjin-eup, is an ''eup'', or town, in Miryang City, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea. It is composed of thirteen ''ri''. Samnangjin lies in the southeastern corner of Miryang, bordering Wondong-myeon ...

to Jinju.

Route

References

{{ChosenRyLines Rail transport in South Korea Railway lines in Korea under Japanese rule Defunct railway companies of Japan Defunct railway companies of Korea Chōsen Railway