The Gyeongwon Line is a railway line serving northeastern Gyeonggi Province in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. The line is operated by Korail. The name of the line came from ''Gyeongseong'' (

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

) and ''Wonsan'', the original terminus of the line, in what is now

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

History

One of the first construction projects undertaken by the Railway Bureau of the Government General of Korea was for an east−west trunk line to connect Keijō to the important port of

Wonsan Wonsan (), previously known as Wonsanjin (), is a port city and naval base located in Kangwon Province (North Korea), Kangwon Province, North Korea, along the eastern side of the Korean Peninsula, on the Sea of Japan and the provincial capital. ...

. The Chosen Government Railway (''Sentetsu'') opened the line in several stages between 1911 and 1914. The first section of mainline to be electrified by Sentetsu was also along the Gyeongwon Line, with the Pokkye− Gosan section being energised on 27 March 1944, as part of a plan made jointly with the South Manchuria Railway for an electrified railway all the way from

Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

to Xinjing, capital of Manchukuo. After the partition of Korea following the end of the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

in 1945, the Gyeongwon Line was split along the 38th parallel between the stations of Hantangang and Choseongni.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama no Tetsudō), The railways in both South and North were nationalised, and the newly-established Korean National Railroad took over operation of the truncated Gyeongwon Line, from Seoul to Choseongni; in the North, the Korean State Railway merged its section of the Gyeongwon Line, Choseong-ri−Wonsan, with the Wonsan− Gowon section of the former Hamgyeong Line to create the Gangwon Line. The line was severely damaged during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. After the ceasefire and the subsequent establishment of the Military Demarcation Line, the division of the line changed, with the South gaining control of the line further northwards as far as Woljeongni. However, the line was rebuilt only as far as Sintalli, resulting in an operation line from Yongsan and Sintalli with a length of . Following the 1961 coup, the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction started South Korea's first five-year plan, which included a construction program to complete the railway network, to foster economic growth. As part of the program, in the outskirts of Seoul, a long avoiding line was built from Kwangwoon University to Mangu on the Jungang Line, called the Mangu Line, which opened on December 30, 1963.

Upgrade

The section of the Gyeongwon Line in the Seoul metropolitan area was among the first to be electrified with the 25 kV/60 Hz AC catenary system in South Korea when to allow for through train services with Seoul Subway Line 1. Further sections were electrified and urban services to Line 1 was extended in the 1980s and then in the 2000s: Altogether of the line was electrified, and was double-tracked. 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. As part of the plan, the Gyeongwon Line is to be further upgraded until Uijeongbu for 230 km/h and may see KTX service. In 2012 restoration of the line was completed between Sintan-ri and Baengmagoji. On December 16, 2023, a single-line railway between Soyosan and Yeoncheon opened on the Seoul Metropolitan Subway Line 1.

Route

A yellow background in the "Distance" box indicates that section of the line is not electrified.

References

Bibliography

* Japanese Government Railways (1937), 鉄道停車場一覧. 昭和12年10月1日現在(The List of the Stations as of 1 October 1937), Kawaguchi Printing Company, Tokyo, pp 495–496

External links