The P'yŏngbuk Line is an electrified standard-gauge secondary trunk 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 Pyŏngan 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 Chŏngju on the

P'yŏngŭi Line The P'yŏngŭi Line is an electrified main trunk line of the Korean State Railway of North Korea, running from P'yŏngyang to Sinŭiju on the border with China.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama no Tetsudō), It is the main co ...

to Ch'ŏngsu; it meets the Ch'ŏngnyŏn P'arwŏn Line at Kusŏng, and at Ch'ŏngsu, via a bridge across the

Yalu River The Yalu River, known by Koreans as the Amrok River or Amnok River, is a river on the border between North Korea and China. Together with the Tumen River to its east, and a small portion of Paektu Mountain, the Yalu forms the border between ...

, it goes to Shanghekou,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, where it connects to

China Railway China State Railway Group Company, Ltd., doing business as China Railway (CR), is the national passenger and freight railroad corporation of the People's Republic of China. China Railway operates passenger and freight transport throughout Ch ...

's Fengshang Railway to Fenghuangcheng.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama no Tetsudō),

History

The line was opened by the privately owned P'yŏngbuk Railway on 27 September 1939 as an industrial railway to serve the Sup'ung Hydroelectric Power Plant on the

.朝鮮總督府官報 (The Public Journal of the Governor-General of Korea), Shōwa Nr. 3813, 3 October 1939 The Emperor of

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...

Puyi Aisin-Gioro Puyi (; 7 February 1906 – 17 October 1967), courtesy name Yaozhi (曜之), was the last emperor of China as the eleventh and final Qing dynasty monarch. He became emperor at the age of two in 1908, but was forced to abdicate on 1 ...

, travelled along this line when he visited the Sup'ung Dam. Following the

partition of Korea The division of Korea began with the defeat of Japan in World War II. During the war, the Allied leaders considered the question of Korea's future after Japan's surrender in the war. The leaders reached an understanding that Korea would be li ...

the line was located within the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

zone of occupation, and was nationalised along with all the other railways in the zone by the

Provisional People’s Committee for North Korea The People's Committee of North Korea (Chosŏn'gŭl: 북조선인민위원회) was a provisional government governing the Northern portion of the Korean Peninsula from 1947 until 1948. Established on 21 February 1947 as the successor of the ...

on 10 August 1946, becoming part of the Korean State Railway. Electrification of the entire line was completed in 1980, and at the same time, semi-automatic train control was installed on the section between Chŏngju and Kusŏng.North Korea Geographic Information: Transportation Geography - P'yŏngbuk Line (in Korean)
/ref>

Services

The line serves a variety of industries, including a textile factory in Kusŏng, a chemical factory in Ch'ŏngsu, and North Korea's largest

lignite Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

mine near P'ungnyŏn, as well as shipping large amounts of wood south from Amrokkang Station on the Yalu River. Other important commodities shipped on the line are limestone and anthracite. There are two long-distance passenger trains that operate on the line - semi-express trains 115/116 between P'yŏngyang and Ch'ŏngsu, and local trains 200/201 between West P'yŏngyang and Ch'ŏngsu. There are also commuter trains along the Ch'ongsu— Sup'ung—P'ungnyŏn (6 pairs), Kusŏng—Paegun (5 pairs) and Chŏngju—Kusŏng (2 pairs) sections of the line.

Route

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

References

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