The Hongŭi Line is an electrified standard-gauge secondary line of the

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 ...

State Railway State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

running from Hongŭi on the

Hambuk Line The Hambuk Line is an electrified standard-gauge trunk line of the Korean State Railway in North Korea, running from Ch'ŏngjin on the P'yŏngra Line to Rajin, likewise on the P'yŏngra line.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama no ...

Tumangang Tumangang-dong () is a neighbourhood in Sonbong, Rason, North Korea, near the China–North Korea–Russia tripoint where the borders of the three countries converge. It is also the closest town in North Korea to the border with Russia, being ...

, which is the border station between North Korea and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. From Tumangang the line continues across the border to Khasan, Russia.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama no Tetsudō), The line from Tumangang to Rajin is double-tracked, including the entirety of the Hongŭi Line;The traffic and geography in North Korea
Hambuk Line
(in Korean) during the recent renovation a 32 km section of dual

Standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object ...

Russian gauge Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

was installed between

and Rajin stations. The entirety of the North Korean section of the line is located in Sŏnbong of Rasŏn Special City. There are service facilities for locomotives and rolling stock at Tumangang Station.

History

The line was built in the late 1940s, coinciding with the opening of a line on the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Far Eastern Railway Far Eastern Railway () is a railway in Russia that crosses Primorsky Krai, Khabarovsk Krai, Amur Oblast, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, and Sakha Republic, Yakutia. Information The railway administration is located in Khabarovsk. The Far Eastern Rail ...

from

Baranovsky Baranovsky, feminine: Baranovskaya is a Russian and Ukrainian variant of the Polish surname Baranowski. An alternative Ukrainian spelling is Baranovskyi. *Anatoliy Baranovsky *Aleksey Baranovsky *Gavriil Baranovsky, Russian architect * Irina Baran ...

to Khasan. The station at Khasan was opened on 28 September 1951, and in 1952 a wooden railway bridge was built across the

Tumen River The Tumen River (, , ; Korean pronunciation: tumaŋaŋ">Help:IPA/Korean">tumaŋaŋ, also known as the Tuman River or Duman River, is a long river that serves as part of the boundary between China (left shore), North Korea (right) and Russi ...

in North Korea. The

Korean-Russian Friendship Bridge Khasan () is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Khasansky District of Primorsky Krai, Russia. It is located near the tripoint on the Tumen River where the borders of Russia, China and North Korea converge. Population: Geography K ...

across the Tumen River was commissioned on 9 August 1959, replacing the temporary wooden bridge, which had grown to be insufficient for the traffic crossing the river.

Services

Freight

Tumangang Station is the primary transit point for trade with Russia. The main imports from Russia are timber and crude oil; the main exports are magnesite, steel, fertiliser, non-ferrous metals and non-ferrous metal concentrates, but since the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

freight traffic has dropped significantly. However, with the renovation and conversion to dual Russian and standard gauge of the 32 km line between Tumangang and Rajin, which includes the entirety of this line, together with the redevelopment of Rajin's port facilities to serve as a gateway to the Trans-Eurasian railway linking Korea to

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

by land, freight traffic is expected to increase significantly in the future. The completion of these renovations has raised the capacity of the line to 12 trains each way per day, with a nominal capacity of 4 million tonnes a year.

Passenger

The international express train 7/8 that operates between

P'yŏngyang Pyongyang () is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution" (). Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 ...

and

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

runs on this line between Hongŭi and Tumangang before crossing the border into Russia. There is also a long-distance service between Tumangang and Tanch'ŏn Ch'ŏngnyŏn station on the

P'yŏngra Line The P'yŏngra Line is an electrified standard-gauge trunk line of the Korean State Railway in North Korea, running from P'yŏngyang to Rason, where it connects with the Hambuk Line.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama no Tetsudō), I ...

. Further, the

Russian Railways Russian Railways or RZD () is a Russian fully state-owned vertically integrated railway company, both managing infrastructure and operating freight and passenger train services and has a near-monopoly on long-distance train travel in Russia. ...

operate trains 651/652 between

Ussuriysk Ussuriysk () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, in the valley of the Razdolnaya River. The city is north of Vladivostok, the administrative center of the krai, and about from both the China–Russia bo ...

and Tumangang.

Route

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hongui Line Railway lines in North Korea Standard-gauge railways in North Korea