The Wolmi Sea Train (월미바다열차), formerly known as Wolmi Galaxy Rail, is a

monorail A monorail is a Rail transport, railway in which the track consists of a single rail or beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, the term refers to the style ...

on the island of

Wolmido Wolmido () is an island off the coast of Incheon, South Korea. It was connected to the mainland by a highway in 1989, and was later connected by a monorail which opened in late 2019. It is a weekend destination and tourist area, with restaurants ...

Incheon Incheon is a city located in northwestern South Korea, bordering Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to the east. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Incheon was home to just 4,700 people when it became an international port in 1883. As of February 2020, ...

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 monorail line has 4 stations and covers 6.1 km connecting Wolmido Island to

Incheon Station Incheon Station () is the western terminus railway station of the Suin–Bundang and Gyeongin lines of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway. The station is in the Bukseong neighborhood of the Jung District, Incheon, South Korea and is approximate ...

, the west terminus of

Seoul Subway Line 1 Seoul Subway Line 1 (dubbed ''The Dark Blue Line'') of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway is a rapid transit and commuter rail line which links central Seoul, South Korea to Yeoncheon station, Yeoncheon in the northeast, Incheon in the southwest, an ...

and the

Suin Line The Suin Line (Suwon-Incheon; ) was a metro line of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway serving the Seoul Capital Area. The original route, abandoned in 1995, was one of the few narrow-gauge railways in South Korea. Opened by the privately owned Cho ...

. 1.15 km is double-tracked, but the loop around Wolmido (3.94 km) is single-track. Phase 2, if built, would have added 2 km single track connecting to Dong-Incheon station, also on Metro Line 1, with a potential Phase 3 looping back to Incheon station. The system is the first in the world to use Urbanaut technology, whose selling point is an inverse T-shaped track: large wheels run on the horizontal part of the track, while small wheels press against the rail and keep it in place. The project was started in 2007, where it was originally designed to be a major monorail carrying 70 passengers. The line was scheduled to open in March 2010, but opening was repeatedly postponed. The project has a poor safety record. In April 2010, a test vehicle collided with a rail inspection vehicle, causing it to crash into a station, parts of which collapsed onto the street below. In August 2010, a wheel falling from the vehicle on a test run injured a pedestrian. In May 2012, a

current collector A current collector (often called a "pickup") is a device used in trolleybuses, trams, electric locomotives and EMUs to carry electric power ( current) from overhead lines, electric third rails, or ground-level power supplies to the electrical ...

fell off the train, although there were no injuries. In 2011, ''

Joongang Daily ''Korea JoongAng Daily'' () is the English edition of the South Korean national daily newspaper ''JoongAng Ilbo''. The newspaper was first published on October 17, 2000, as ''JoongAng Ilbo English Edition''. It mainly carries news and feature s ...

'' reported that construction had been indefinitely suspended due to "colossal corruption", and that what had been built was set to be demolished due to "safety issues". It was reported the system was not built to the specifications of the Urbanaut. A technical inspection in May 2013 revealed numerous unresolved safety issues. In August 2014, it was announced that the monorail was unsafe and the project would be abandoned. The cost of the entire system, originally estimated at US$60 million, had risen to 110 billion

South Korean won The South Korean won (symbol: ₩; code: KRW; ) is the official currency of South Korea. A single won is divided into 100 jeon, the monetary subunit. The jeon is no longer used for everyday transactions, and it appears only in foreign exchange ...

(approx.

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

100 million) before construction was suspended. A revised plan in 2015 cut the size of the trains to carrying 24 passengers. Construction based on the revised plan began in February 2015 aimed to complete in Fall 2016. It was eventually opened on October 8, 2019.

List of stations

References

See also