Jeolla_Line

Jeolla Line

Jeolla Line

Railway line in South Korea

The Jeolla Line (Korean: 전라선) is a railway line in North and South Jeolla Provinces in South Korea. The line is served by frequent passenger trains from Seoul (via the Gyeongbu and Honam Lines) to Yeosu.

Quick Facts Overview, Native name ...
Quick Facts Hangul, Hanja ...

History

The first railway along a section of what became the Jeolla Line was the Zenboku Lightrail Line, a 762 mm (30.0 in) narrow gauge line from Riri to Zenshu opened by the privately owned Zenboku Light Railway on 12 November 1917.[1] In 1927, the line was nationalised,[1] and the Chosen Government Railway (Sentetsu) soon set to converting the line to standard gauge; this work was begun on 18 April 1929 and completed later that year.[2] Sentetsu then extended the line, completing the Jeonju–Namwon section in October 1931,[2] the Namwon–Gokseong section in October 1933,[2] and finally the Gokseong–Suncheon section[2] on 16 December 1936.[3]

In 1936, Sentetsu nationalised the privately owned Chosen Railway's Gwangnyeo Line, which ran from Songjeongni to Yeosu and Yeosu Port via Suncheon,[4] renaming it Songnyeo Line and splitting it apart to merge the Suncheon–Yeosu section with the Jeonbuk Line to create the Jeolla Line in 1936.[1] The line was completed with the reconstruction of the Iri (today Iksan) to Jeonju section in March 1937.[1]

Upgrade

The upgrade of the Iksan-Suncheon section started with the construction of a bypass around Jeonju with wider curves, opened in 1981.

From 1989, the first phase of the project to re-lay and double-track the line, mostly in a new alignment with wider curves, longer tunnels and bridges, was launched on three sections between Sin-ri, at the end of the Jeonju realignment, and Suncheon. The two longest new structures were the 5,671 m (18,606 ft) long[5] Byeongpung Tunnel, north of Suncheon, and the 6,128 m (20,105 ft) long Seulchi Tunnel, south of Jeonju, which became South Korea's longest rail tunnel,[5] surpassing Jeongam Tunnel on the Taebaek Line.[6] The three sections of the first phase with altogether 64.3 km (40.0 mi), shortening the original route by 16.7 km (10.4 mi), were finished by 1999 and entered service on 18 May 1999.[5] The two gaps between those sections were plugged in a second phase in 2002 and August 2004, the altogether 58.3 km (36.2 mi) long new sections shortened the line by another 11.4 km (7.1 mi).[5]

The third phase of the upgrading project, started in 2002, involved the double-tracking of the remaining 35.2 km (21.9 mi) long single-track section from Iksan to Sin-ri, until the end of the Jeonju realignment, and electrification of the entire double-tracked and re-aligned section from Iksan to Suncheon, altogether 154.2 km (95.8 mi),[7] to allow speeds of 180 km/h (110 mph).[8] By March 2010, progress on the 154.2 km (95.8 mi) section from Iksan to Suncheon reached 63.0%.[7] This phase of the project is implemented as a public private partnership of the Build-Transfer-Lease (BTL) method, with a government contribution of 510.852 billion won and a BTL share of 470.699 billion won.[7] The upgrade and re-alignment of the final Suncheon-Yeosu section was launched as a separate project in 2001,[9] with work starting in December 2003.[10] As of March 2010, progress on the 40.0 km (24.9 mi) long alignment stood at 88.0% out of a total budget of 732.002 billion won.[11] The entire upgrading project is to be completed in 2011.[7][11]

On September 1, 2010, the South Korean government announced a strategic plan to reduce travel times from Seoul to 95% of the country to under 2 hours by 2020. As part of the plan, the Jeolla Line is to be further upgraded for 230 km/h (140 mph).[12]

Major stations

Major stations and junctions on the line:

Services

The Jeolla Line is served by intercity ITX-Saemaeul trains and cross-country Mugunghwa-ho trains. As of October 2010, the travel time on the Saemaeul-ho from Yongsan station in Seoul is a minimum 3 hours 28 minutes to Jeonju, 4 hours 33 minutes to Suncheon and 5 hours 15 minutes to Yeosu, with 2 hours 30 minutes taken for the Iksan—Jeosu travel along the Jeolla Line itself [clarification needed]. Mugunghwa-ho trains that also start in Yongsan cover the line from Iksan to Yeosu in between a minimum of 2 hours 30 minutes and a maximum of 4 hours, depending on the number of stops.[13]

Jeolla KTX

Yeosu hosted the Expo 2012, and Korail timed the introduction of Korea Train Express services on the line ahead of the event.[10] Original plans foresaw the start of Jeolla KTX services in April 2011, reducing the Seoul–Yeosu travel time to 2 hours 55 minutes, using KTX-II (KTX-Sancheon) high-speed trains.[14] In February 2011, when the necessary electrification works were 96% complete, the start of services was postponed to September 2011, and the Yongsan–Yeosu travel time was planned to be 3 hours 7 minutes.[15] After the completion of the first stage of the Honam High Speed Railway, the travel time is planned to reduce to 2 hours 25 minutes.[14]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    "전라지방 - 교통∙통신체계의 발달" (PDF). Land Portal. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2010-12-04. Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine
  2. [2]
    "안전제일 철도에서 위험천만 돌밭길로?". OhmyNews. 2001-11-24. Retrieved 2010-12-04.
  3. [3]
    "경영원칙 > 경영공시 > 영업현황 > 영업거리현황". Korail. Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2010-11-27. Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine
  4. [4]
    "여수 율촌역". Sunchonnet.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2010-12-04.
  5. [5]
    전라선 복선화 16년간의 대장정, 한국철도 지도를 바꾸다!. Railnews (in Korean). Korail. 2004-08-01. Retrieved 2010-11-04.[permanent dead link]
  6. [6]
    "From the coal transportation hub to the four-season leisure and sports gateway - Gohan Station (Jeongseon-gun, Gangwon-do)". InvestKorea. 2007-11-21. Archived from the original on 2011-10-08. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
  7. [7]
    "전라선 복선전철화". Korea Rail Network Authority. Retrieved 2010-10-24.
  8. [8]
    "Korea's railways face a bright future". International Railway Journal. 2008-07-01. Archived from the original on 2009-04-16. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
  9. [9]
    지역 현안 사업 (in Korean). Mayor of Yeosu's office. Archived from the original on 2014-01-05. Retrieved 2010-11-12.
  10. [10]
    "South Korea's growing network". Railway Gazette International. 2008-09-08. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
  11. [11]
    "순천~여수 복선전철". Korea Rail Network Authority. Retrieved 2010-10-24.
  12. [12]
    "Bullet trains coming to a town near you by 2020". JoongAng Daily. 2010-09-02. Retrieved 2010-10-27.
  13. [13]
    "Booking". Korail. Archived from the original on 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2010-10-28. Archived 2011-07-13 at the Wayback Machine
  14. [14]
    숙박ㆍ교통ㆍ민자 사업 어디까지 왔나 어디를 가도 '여수는 지금 공사중' 2조원 투입해 2년간 단계별 건립 도심연결 도로망ㆍ교통혼잡은 숙제. The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean). 2010-05-12. Archived from the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
  15. [15]
    "여수엑스포 SOC 사업, 속도 낸다". The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean). 2011-02-17. Retrieved 2011-02-20.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Jeolla_Line, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.