Four More Midpoint Express Railway Stations to Be Built

The express rail linking Seoul and Busan will have stations in Pyongtaek in Kyonggi, Osong in Chungbuk, Kimchun and Ulsan in Kyungbuk.

As President Roh Moo-hyun said it would be desirable to have a station in Ulsan as a midpoint station of the Seoul-Busan express railway, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation announced that it is pushing ahead with building stations in Ulsan and other three cities that the public has wanted to construct a station.

The ministry said it plans to make the three cities also as midpoint stations. Decisions related to the construction will be made within this year after consultations among government agencies.

According to the Construction Ministry, it has been analyzed that constructing stations in Osong, Kimchun and Ulsan would produce much economic benefits.

Pyongtaek is located too closely from Chunan station. But the demand for train travel is expected to rise when a U.S. base would move from Yongsan to Pyongtaek and the local government of Kyonggi announced it is willing to spend its own budget on building a station. Thus, the government is likely to approve the region to have an express train station.

Lee Jae-bung, Construction Ministry official in charge of the express railway project said, “To facilitate the use of the express railway service, it would be better to increase the number of midpoint stations than operating just the existing stations (in Seoul, Yongsan, Gwangmung, Chunan, Daejoen, Dongdaegu, Kyungju and Busan). The government will finalize its plan by the end of the year.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation plans to complete the construction of Ulsan station during the second phase of the express railway project, by 2010 while starting to build stations in Osong and Kimchun as soon as the budget is earmarked.

The construction schedule in Pyongtaek will be adjusted according to the relocation schedule of the American base.

As one additional station increases travel hour by seven minute, the operation hour of the entire express railway would increase as well. The Construction Ministry said, however the entire travel hour will not be increase very much, as the new express trains would stop at just several midpoint stations in accordance with travel demand.

Jae-Seong Hwang jsonhng@donga.com