Improvement of Metropolitan Railway Designation Criteria from 'Supplier to User'... Briefing Session on the 15th

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 13th that it will hold a briefing session on the 15th to gather opinions on measures to improve the designation criteria for metropolitan railroads.

Metropolitan railroads are expected to play an important role in solving metropolitan transportation problems and promoting balanced regional development, but there have been many criticisms that the designation criteria, which form the basis for promoting metropolitan railroad projects, have been rigidly applied, hindering revitalization.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, through a research project by the Korea Transport Institute, has prepared measures to improve the existing 'supplier-centered' and 'uniformly focused on metropolitan areas' designation criteria for metropolitan railroads to be 'user-oriented' and 'customized considering regional characteristics.'

First, to improve user satisfaction during commuting hours, a criterion will be established reflecting the effect of arriving within 60 minutes from the starting or ending station of the metropolitan railroad to the regional central stations adjacent to places such as special/metropolitan city halls. The distance criterion, previously limited to within a 40 km radius of the regional central station, will also be expanded to within 50 km.

(Data provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

Furthermore, to allow the designation criteria to be operated in a regionally customized manner, additional and adjusted regional central points will be established considering the changed social and economic conditions, and the basis for introducing 'metropolitan railroad linked to metropolitan areas' will be prepared.

In the Seoul metropolitan area, which designates Seoul City Hall and Gangnam Station as central points, key GTX transfer stations for metropolitan transportation (Seoul Station, Samsung Station, Cheongnyangni Station) and Incheon City Hall will be added and adjusted. In the Daejeon area, Sejong City Hall will be added as a central point.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to finalize the improvement measures early next year after fully collecting opinions from related local governments through this briefing session on the designation criteria improvement plan and proceed with the related legal amendment procedures.

Kang Hee-eop, Director of the Railway Bureau at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "For national balanced development, 11 new metropolitan railroad projects in local areas have been included in the 4th National Railroad Network Construction Plan, and among them, one project per region, totaling five, has been selected as leading projects to speedily proceed with follow-up procedures such as preliminary feasibility studies."

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