Rajin station is a railway station in Rajin-guyŏk, Rasŏn Special City,

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 ...

. It is the junction point and terminus of both the Hambuk and P'yŏngra lines of the

Korean State Railway The Korean State Railway is the operating arm of the Ministry of Railways of North Korea (), commonly called the State Rail () and has its headquarters at Pyongyang, P'yŏngyang. The current Minister of Railways is Chang Jun-song. History 19 ...

. It is also the starting point of a freight-only branchline to Rajin Port station.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama no Tetsudō),

History

In 1935, the port at Rajin was opened as an alternative to Unggi (now called Sŏnbong); at the same time, on 1 November 1935 the

South Manchuria Railway The South Manchuria Railway (; ), officially , Mantetsu () or Mantie () for short, was a large of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operation of railways on the Dalian– Fengtian (Mukden)–Changchun (called Xinjing from ...

opened the Ungra Line to connect Unggi to Rajin. An express train named "Asahi" from Xinjing,

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially known as the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of Great Manchuria thereafter, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China that existed from 1932 until its dissolution in 1945. It was ostens ...

to Rajin was put into service in 1936 to connect to the ferry to Japan.南満州鉄道株式会社全路線
/ref> After the end of 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 ...

the Ungra Line was combined with several others to create the Hambuk Line as it is today. The construction of the Korean-Russian Friendship Bridge across the Tumen River, along with the Hongŭi Line from Tumangang to Hongŭi on the Hambuk Line in 1959 created a direct rail connection between North Korea and the Soviet Union; this, along with the extension in 1965 of the P'yŏngra Line to Rajin, meeting up with the terminus of the Hambuk Line. This turned Rajin station into one of the most important stations on the entirety of the North Korean rail network, handling vast amounts of freight traffic to and from 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 ...

and the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe. In 2008 work was begun to convert the line from the DPRK-Russia border to the port at Rajin to dual (standard and Russian) gauge, including the entirety of the Hongŭi Line and the Hongŭi-Rajin section of the Hambuk Line.

Services

Freight

Though the amount of import-export traffic to

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 ...

has dropped significantly since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a significant amount of freight traffic still moves through Rajin station to and from Russia.The traffic and geography in North Korea
Hambuk Line
(in Korean) Since the completion of the modernisation of the line from the DPRK-Russia border in 1993, this traffic is expected to increase once again.

Passenger

Two pairs of passenger express trains are known to stop at Rajin station: * Express trains 7/8, operating between P'yŏngyang 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 ...

via Tumangang; * Semi-express trains 128-129-130/131-132-133, operating between Kalma and Rajin via the P'yŏngra Line; There is also a long-distance train between Kalma and Rajin that runs via the Hambuk Line through Ch'ŏngjin and Hoeryŏng, as well as a commuter trains 623/624 that operate between Rajin and Sŏnbong;

References

{{coord, 42, 14, 59, N, 130, 17, 21, E, region:KP_type:railwaystation_source:kolossus-jawiki, display=title Buildings and structures in Rason Railway stations in North Korea opened in 1929