Jungbu Naeryuk Line 'Icheon~Chungju' KTX Opens... "Establishing a 30-Minute Living Zone"

Central Inland Icheon~Mungyeong Railway Construction Route Map (Data provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

The KTX railway connecting Icheon in Gyeonggi Province and Chungju in North Chungcheong Province will be opened. As a result, the surrounding areas are expected to be integrated into a single living zone accessible within 30 minutes.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Rail Network Authority announced on the 29th that the construction of the Jungbu Inland Line railway project between Icheon and Chungju has been completed, and operations will begin on the 31st.

The newly opened Icheon?Chungju section corresponds to 54 km of the total 93.2 km single-track railway construction between Icheon and Mungyeong. With a total project cost of 1.2143 trillion KRW, the line connecting Icheon City in the Seoul metropolitan area, passing through Yeoju City and Eumseong County in North Chungcheong Province, to Chungju City has been completed.

Icheon and Chungju are major hubs in the Gyeonggi and North Chungcheong regions, but there was no railway connecting the two areas. Traveling by bus also required transfers, causing inconvenience.

With this opening, the two regions will be directly connected by the high-speed KTX-Eum train, significantly reducing travel time. While it takes 1 hour and 45 minutes by bus and 1 hour by car to travel from Icheon to Chungju, using the KTX-Eum will reduce the time to about 30 minutes. Accordingly, Icheon, Yeoju, Eumseong, and Chungju areas will be reorganized into a single living zone within 30 minutes.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is also accelerating the Jungbu Inland Railway project. The Jungbu Inland Railway is a planned inland central trunk line connecting Suseo?Icheon?Chungju?Mungyeong?Gimcheon?Geoje.

With the opening of the Chungju?Mungyeong railway section in 2023, and the completion of ongoing projects such as Suseo?Gwangju, Mungyeong?Gimcheon, and the Southern Inland Railway (Gimcheon?Geoje), the entire line from Suseo to Geoje will be connected by 2027.

Three new stations have been established on the Icheon?Chungju section. Each station was designed to symbolize the representative landmarks of the region to become local landmarks. Once the station area development is completed, it is expected that the population flow from the Seoul metropolitan area will increase in the Jungbu Inland region, which boasts excellent natural scenery.

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Noh Hyung-wook said, "This opening is not the end but the beginning of the Jungbu Inland region railway," adding, "When the north-south longitudinal inland trunk line is fully completed by 2027, the Jungbu Inland region will be reborn as a transportation hub of South Korea."

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