"GTX-B Line Change None"... Incheon City Reaffirms Original Plan in Response to Citizen Petition

Review of Transfer Plans After Confirmation of Seoul Southern Metropolitan Express Railroad Project

Perspective view of GTX-B Line Songdo International City Station [Provided by Incheon City]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Incheon City has officially announced its position to proceed with the 수도권광역급행철도 (GTX)-B line as originally planned without any changes.

On the 24th, in response to a citizen petition opposing changes to the GTX-B line, the city stated, "The city and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plan to proceed with the GTX-B line as originally planned without any changes," adding, "We will focus administrative efforts on early construction in the second half of 2022."

The GTX-B line is a project to build an express railway over an 80 km stretch connecting Incheon Songdo International City, Bupyeong, Bucheon City in Gyeonggi Province, Yeouido in Seoul, Seoul Station, and Maseok in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province. The total project cost is approximately 5.9 trillion KRW, including 1.8316 trillion KRW in national funds, 678.7 billion KRW in local funds, and 3.3935 trillion KRW in private investment.

The GTX-B line, with a maximum speed of 180 km/h, is expected to drastically improve accessibility for Incheon citizens to Seoul by enabling travel from Songdo to Seoul in about 20 minutes.

Since passing the government's preliminary feasibility study in August last year, procedures for establishing the basic plan are underway, but numerous complaints demanding additional stations and route changes have arisen.

Among these, a resident of Incheon Songdo International City raised an online citizen petition on the 16th of last month opposing the routing of the GTX-B line through Songdo Station, citing concerns over delays in various development plans in Songdo due to changes in the GTX-B line, and requested that the GTX-B line be connected with the Seoul Southern Metropolitan Express Railway instead.

This petition received support from 3,063 people over a month, meeting the requirements for a response from Incheon City.

Lee Jeongdu, Director of the Transportation Bureau, stated, "The B/C ratio (benefit-cost ratio) of the GTX-B line is about 1.0, and if the route is changed to pass through Songdo Station, the additional project cost would increase by approximately 250 billion KRW, which could lead to a decline in economic feasibility and risk losing the momentum to proceed with the project," emphasizing, "Route changes are realistically impossible."

Regarding the request to branch off the GTX-B line at Bucheon Sports Complex Station and connect it with the Seoul Southern Metropolitan Express Railway, he said, "The schedules of the two projects differ, making it difficult to review the petition at this time," adding, "If the Seoul Southern Metropolitan Express Railway project is incorporated into the national railway network and passes the preliminary feasibility study for normal progress, we will actively consider connection plans together with Seoul City and Gyeonggi Province."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.