Changwon Special City, Pioneering Transportation Network Improvement Centered on Railroads

Establishing a Railway Network Connecting 'Gukgasandan 2.0', 'Jinhae New Port', and 'Gadeokdo New Airport' to Ensure Urban Sustainability

Changwon Special City in Gyeongnam has decided to drastically improve its transportation network centered on railroads.

On the 22nd, the city held a kickoff meeting for the at the City Hall's 3rd conference room to reorganize the transportation system focused on railroads.

Changwon Special City is holding a meeting to drastically improve the transportation network centered on railroads.

This project aims to reflect new railroad projects in the 5th National Railroad Network Construction Plan, the highest-level plan in the railroad sector, and to review the feasibility of three urban rail lines included in the Gyeongsangnam-do Urban Railroad Network Construction Plan approved by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport last May, selecting the optimal routes.

Although the Gyeongjeon Line KTX has been operating since 2010, it takes more than three hours from Changwon to Seoul, making the name "high-speed rail" misleading. Additionally, the Jinhae Line, which connects Changwon National Industrial Complex and Jinhae within the city, has suspended passenger transport since 2015, resulting in very inconvenient railroad transportation.

Hong Nam-pyo, mayor of Changwon Special City, recognized the importance of railroad transportation upon launching the 8th elected term and has been focusing administrative efforts on improving railroad services, achieving short-term results such as opening the Changwon-Suseo SRT line on September 1st.

Going forward, a railroad-centered metropolitan transportation network connecting Changwon’s new growth engines?‘Changwon National Industrial Complex 2.0’, ‘Jinhae New Port’, and ‘Gadeokdo New Airport’?must be well established to bring positive ripple effects from large-scale development projects to Changwon City, increasing the importance of railroad transportation.

Accordingly, the city is promoting transportation network improvements centered on railroads to shorten travel time between Changwon and the metropolitan area and to organically link large-scale development projects, which are Changwon’s new growth engines.

First, the ‘Changwon-Dongdaegu High-Speed Railroad’ will reduce travel time to the metropolitan area from the current three hours to two hours. The city plans to build the ‘Changwon Industrial Line’ and ‘Jinhae New Port Line’ to establish a railroad network connecting Daegu National Industrial Complex, Changwon National Industrial Complex 2.0, Jinhae New Port, and Gadeokdo New Airport, forming a railroad logistics axis.

Additionally, the ‘Masan New Port Line’ will enhance the competitiveness of Masan Port New Port, and the ‘Noksan-Jinhae Metropolitan Railroad’ will be promoted by extending the Busan Urban Railroad Hadan-Noksan Line to Jinhae, improving population inflow and living conditions in the eastern Jinhae area.

Improvements to the urban transportation network centered on trams will also be pursued. Since transitioning to a ‘public transportation-centered’ system is a timely task to secure urban sustainability and achieve carbon neutrality, the city plans to overcome the limitations of buses as the sole public transportation mode and revitalize urban regeneration and city aesthetics through tram introduction.

Changwon City’s urban rail consists of three lines approved by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport as part of the Gyeongsangnam-do Urban Railroad Network Construction Plan: Changwon Line 1 from Masan Station to Changwon Central Station (L=15.82 km), Changwon Line 2 from Changwon Station to Jinhae Station (L=19.28 km), and Changwon Line 3 from Wolyeong Square to Jinhae District Office (L=33.23 km).

The city plans to comprehensively review economic feasibility, financial feasibility, and regional balanced development for each line and select the optimal route to apply for a preliminary feasibility study next year.

Mayor Hong said, “The infrastructure for the airport and port to complete Changwon-centered Tri-Port has already been established. Now, only the construction of the supporting railroad network remains,” adding, “We will write a new chapter in Changwon’s history through a revolutionary improvement of the railroad-centered transportation network.”

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