Construction set about for Yongsan-Sokcho express train

Starting in 2027, passengers can travel from Yongsan, Seoul to Sokcho by KTX, Korea's high-speed trains, within just one hour and 39 minutes.

On Monday, Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT) said that a groundbreaking ceremony took place at the Expo Square in Sokcho, Gangwon Province, for the construction of an express railway connecting the northern cities of Chuncheon and Sokcho. The ceremony was joined by President Yoon Suk-yeol, Land, Infrastructure, and Transport Minister Won Hee-ryong, and Gangwon Governor Kim Jin-tae. In his speech at the ceremony, President Yoon said that the critical factor for balanced development across regions is to ensure the same accessibility everywhere and that Gangwon Province would grow into a hub of tourism and high technology if the traffic network becomes more diverse and denser in this province.

Chuncheon-Sokcho High-Speed Train Line will be one of the essential national train routes that connects Yongsan through Chuncheon to Sokcho. A 93.7 km-long railway will be built linking Chuncheon and Sokcho for six years with a budget of about 2.4 trillion Korean won. Five train stations will be set up on the line: Hwacheon, Yanggu, Inje, Baekdam, and Sokcho. Land, Infrastructure, and Transport Ministry officials pointed out that it would be the first turning point in terms of regional development for counties in the province like Hwacheon, Yanggu, and Inje. They added that the railway construction is expected to trigger 2.3498 trillion won worth of production-inducing effects, creating 48,890 new jobs and high tourism demands through better accessibility to the metropolitan areas.

Once the construction is complete, the railway from Seoul to Chuncheon will be extended to Sokcho, allowing passengers to travel between Seoul and Sokcho in just one hour and 39 minutes via the KTX-Eum train. At the moment, the same travel takes about three hours and 15 minutes in total, 75 minutes by ITX from Seoul to Chuncheon and then 120 minutes by bus from Chuncheon to Sokcho. It takes almost three hours by car as well. Most new railway sections will be built as tunnels, defying weather conditions such as heavy snow and allowing all-year-round operation.


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