The Jeonnam Line (全南線, ''Zen'nan-sen'') was a railway line of the Chōsen Railway (''Chōtetsu'') of colonial-era Korea, located in

South Jeolla Province South Jeolla Province (; ''Jeollanam-do''; ), also known as Jeonnam, is a province of South Korea. South Jeolla has a population of 1,902,324 (2014) and has a geographic area of located in the Honam region at the southwestern tip of the Korean ...

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 ...

via Damyang and

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 ...

. Work on the Songjeongni–Damyang section began in April 1921, and was opened to traffic on 1 July 1922 as the Jeonnam Line; the month prior, work had begun on the Masan–Jinju section, which was later opened as the

Gyeongnam Line The Gyeongnam Line (慶南線, ''Keinan-sen'') was a railway line of the Chosen Railway, Chōsen Railway (''Chōtetsu'') of Korea under Japanese rule, colonial-era Korea, located in South Gyeongsang Province. History On 13 July 1918, the private ...

. On 1 September 1923, the Chōsen Southern Railway merged with five other privately owned railways to create the Chōsen Railway.Establishment of the Chosen Railway
Dong-A Ilbo, 3 September 1923 (in Korean) Work to build the Damyang–Jinju section was never completed, and on 31 October 1944, the Gwangju–Damyang section was dismantled. After the end of the Pacific War and the nationalisation of Korea's railways, the

Korean National Railroad The Korea Railroad Corporation (Korean: 한국철도공사, Hanja: ), branded as KORAIL (코레일, officially changed to in November 2019), is the national railway operator in South Korea. Currently, KORAIL is a public corporation, manage ...

divided the Jeonnam Line, making the Gwangju–Seongjeongni section part of the

Gwangju Line Gwangju () is South Korea's sixth-largest metropolis. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister. The city was also the capital of South Jeolla Province until the provincial office ...

, and after completing the Songjeong–Jinju section, merging that into the Gyeongjeon Line.

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