"Opened During Governor Lee Jae-myung's Term" "Approval During Governor Kim Moon-soo's Era"... Kim Golla Controversy Draws Former Provincial Governors' Responses

Lee "Seoul City Links Line 5 Extension with Construction Site Issues"
Seoul City "Gyeonggi Governor Lee at the Opening of Gimpo Gold Line"

The responsibility dispute surrounding the Gimpo Urban Railway (Gimpo Gold Line) is escalating. The issue of exceeding the passenger capacity of the Gold Line, which was expected to become the lifeline for Gimpo citizens, has turned into a political headache.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, mentioned Seoul in relation to the responsibility for traffic congestion during his ride on the Gimpo Gold Line, but Seoul pushed back, stating that Lee was the governor of Gyeonggi Province when the Gimpo Gold Line was opened.

On the 25th of last month, Lee Jae-myung visited the light rail line Gimpo Gold Line, which connects Gimpo City in Gyeonggi Province and Gangseo-gu in Seoul, to hear about the current situation. On that day, Lee said, "The fundamental solution is the extension of Line 5, but it seems that linking the unrelated issue of relocating the construction waste disposal site by Seoul is causing problems." Earlier, Seoul had set the relocation of the construction waste disposal site to Gimpo as a precondition for extending Line 5 to Gimpo, and Gimpo City accepted this condition.

However, Seoul immediately refuted Lee’s claim. They said the traffic inconvenience on the Gimpo Urban Railway was the fault of those responsible at the time who failed to predict demand. Oh Shin-hwan, Seoul’s Deputy Mayor for Political Affairs, criticized Lee, saying, "I hope you look back on who the mayor of Gimpo and the governor of Gyeonggi Province were when the two-car mini light rail started operation."

Deputy Mayor Oh warned, "Seoul has refrained from political disputes over the traffic inconvenience experienced by Gimpo citizens who consider Seoul their living area. However, I want to make it clear that Lee’s remarks before and after riding the train today distort the feelings of not only Seoul but also metropolitan citizens."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

As Deputy Mayor Oh said, at the time of the Gimpo Gold Line opening, the mayor of Gimpo was Jung Ha-young of the Democratic Party, and the governor of Gyeonggi Province was Lee Jae-myung. However, since traffic inconvenience has long been an issue in Gimpo, discussions related to the Gimpo Urban Railway project had been ongoing even before Lee and Mayor Jung took office. The Gimpo Urban Railway project underwent many ups and downs, including changes from light rail to Line 9 extension and back to light rail due to Gimpo City’s financial issues.

The Gimpo Urban Railway project received approval from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in 2009, during the tenure of Kim Moon-soo, governor of Gyeonggi Province from the Grand National Party.

According to the light rail urban railway basic plan at the time, the project cost was a total of 1.1863 trillion won, with one light rail line connecting Hangang New Town to Gaelpo, Bukbyeon, Sau, Pungmu, Gochon, and Gimpo Airport Station (a 25.0 km extension with 10 stations), and it was planned to be constructed to operate trains with up to four cars.

However, when Yoo Young-rok (then Democratic Party, now People Power Party) was elected mayor in 2010 on the promise of extending Line 9, the project was scrapped.

The subsequent process was not smooth either. One and a half years after Mayor Yoo’s inauguration, the Line 9 extension plan was changed back to a light rail plan. This was because Seoul City requested Gimpo City to expand the station size to accommodate eight-car trains for Line 9, which raised financial issues.

Moreover, Gimpo City maintained a policy of building the urban railway without receiving national subsidies to avoid a preliminary feasibility study, increasing the cost burden and reducing the platform size.

Ultimately, it became a "mini train" with two cars per set and platform length suitable for two cars (33 meters). This meant it was born with limitations that made future train additions and station expansions impossible.

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