The Ch'ŏngnyŏn P'arwŏn Line is a non-electrified standard-gauge secondary

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

line of the

Korean State Railway The Korean State Railway (), commonly called the State Rail () is the operating arm of the Ministry of Railways of North Korea and has its headquarters at P'yŏngyang. The current Minister of Railways is Chang Jun Song. History 1945–195 ...

in North P'yŏngan Province,

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

, running from

Kujang Kujang may refer to: Places * Kujang County, North Pyongan province, North Korea ** Kujang (town) * Kujang, Odisha, India Other uses * Kujang (weapon), a blade weapon native to the Sundanese people of West Java, Indonesia * , a ''Clurit''-class f ...

on the Manp'o and

P'yŏngdŏk Line The P'yŏngdŏk Line is an electrified standard-gauge trunk line of the Korean State Railway in North Korea running from Taedonggang Station in P'yŏngyang, where it connects to the P'yŏngbu, P'yŏngnam, P'yŏngra and P'yŏngŭi Lines, to ...

s to Kusŏng on the P'yŏngbuk Line. This line serves the Nyŏngbyŏn Nuclear Scientific Research Centre via the Pun'gang Line, which joins the mainline at P'arwŏn.

History

A line from Tŏkch'ŏn to P'arwŏn had been planned already in the 1940s by the

West Chosen Central Railway The West Chōsen Central Railway (Japanese: 西鮮中央鉄道, ''Sōsen Chūō Tetsudō''; Korean: 서선중앙철도, ''Seoseon Jung'ang Cheoldo''), was a privately owned railway company in Japanese-occupied Korea. History The West Chōsen Ce ...

, after receiving permission from the

Railway Bureau The Japanese Government Railways (JGR) was the national railway system directly operated by the Japanese Ministry of Railways ( ja, 鉄道省, Tetsudō-shō, ) until 1949. It was a predecessor of Japanese National Railways and the later Japan Rai ...

of the

Government-General of Korea Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

in 1940 to extend its line beyond Tŏkch'ŏn.朝鮮総督府官報 (The Public Journal of the Governor-General of Korea), Shōwa No. 4021, 18 June 1940 (in Japanese) However, by the end of the war, construction had been completed only as far as Changsangri (today on the

Changsang Line The Changsang Line is an electrified freight-only railway line of the Korean State Railway in South P'yŏngan Province, North Korea, running from Hyangjang on the P'yŏngdŏk Line to Changsang.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sa ...

), although work had begun on the line towards Kujang; it was only in 1953 after the end of the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

that the Tŏkp'al Line to P'arwŏn (the line's name came from the two termini, Tŏkch'ŏn and P'alwŏn) via Kujang was finally completed. The line was then extended further, reaching Kusŏng in 1976. Although by then the line ran Kujang–Kusŏng and the Tŏkch'ŏn–Kujang section had been made part of the P'yŏngdŏk Line, it retained the "Tŏkp'al Line" name until then.

Services

Local passenger trains 795/796 operate on this line between Kujang Ch'ŏngnyŏn and Kusŏng.

Route

A yellow background in the "Distance" box indicates that section of the line is not electrified.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parwon Line Railway lines in North Korea Standard gauge railways in North Korea