The Incheon-Suwon Suin Line reopens to the public 25 years after its closure.
[Incheon News, Reporter Lee Jeong-yoon]
[Article Content]
Anchor Park In-ae)
The Suin Line, connecting Incheon and Suwon, is scheduled to open its entire section on the 12th of next month.
This marks the full opening of the Suin Line as a subway, 25 years after its closure.
In today's in-depth report, we'll examine the significance and expected benefits of the opening of the entire Suin Line.
First, reporter Lee Jeong-yoon reports.
Report)
The history of the Suin Line, connecting Incheon and Suwon,
began in 1937.
At the time, the Suin Line was opened to transport salt from the Sorae Salt Farm and rice from the Yeoju region to Japan.
The narrow-gauge Suin Line was so small that passengers sitting face-to-face could barely touch each other,
hence its nickname, "the little train." Although smaller than city buses, the Hanryang became an important means of transportation for citizens, transporting goods and people.
However, as buses grew as a form of public transportation in the 1970s,
the number of Suin Line users decreased, and the service intervals gradually shortened.
And on December 31, 1995,
after 59 years of operation,
the Suin Line disappeared from the pages of history.
[Kim Chun-sik / Curator at Sorae History Museum]
"It was originally built for the painful purpose of colonial exploitation,
but in the 1960s and 1970s, it served as a means of transportation for students traveling between Suwon and Incheon,
and was frequently used by mothers who traded vegetables from nearby fields or fish caught in the sea between Suwon and Incheon.
It was such a special train."
The discontinued Suin Line reopened as a subway in 2012. Due to urban development in Incheon and southern Gyeonggi Province,
the population has increased again,
and the Suin Line has been reborn as an urban railway.
The project was divided into three phases:
Phase 1, 2, and 3.
Phase 1, the Oido-Songdo section,
began operation in June 2012,
and Phase 2, the Songdo-Incheon section,
opened in February 2016.
The third phase, the Suwon-Hanyang University section, is scheduled to open on the 12th of next month.
The Ansan section will continue to use the existing urban railway system.
25 years after the Suin Line was closed,
the entire line will be fully opened.
A total of 2.074 trillion won was invested in the project.
Once the entire Suin Line is fully opened,
the travel time from Incheon to Suwon is expected to be significantly shortened.
[Choi Yong-jin / Director of the Metropolitan Private Railway Division, Korea Rail Network Authority]
"Once the entire section opens, it currently takes about 90 minutes to travel from Incheon to Suwon. However, with the double-track electrification, this time will be shortened by about 20 minutes,
and it will also serve to connect Incheon and Gyeonggi Province within the same living area."
The Suin Line, which was previously a narrow-gauge train, has been re-opened as a subway.
With the full opening of the Suin Line,
the southern Seoul metropolitan area's railway network connecting Incheon, southern Gyeonggi Province, and Seoul is expected to be completed.
This is Lee Jeong-yoon from Incheon News.
[Photographed/Edited by Lee Seung-mok]