The Chungbuk Line(충북선, 忠北線) is a railway line serving

North Chungcheong North Chungcheong Province ( ko, 충청북도, ''Chungcheongbuk-do''), also known as Chungbuk, is a province of South Korea. North Chungcheong has a population of 1,578,934 (2014) and has a geographic area of located in the Hoseo region in the ...

Province in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. The line connects

Jochiwon Jochiwon () is a town located in Sejong City, South Korea. Jochiwon is located in South Chungcheong Province. As of 2011, Jochiwon has a large foreign community consisting of native English speakers considering its rather small size and populatio ...

on the Gyeongbu Line to Bongyang on the Jungang Line, serving the major cities of

Cheongju Cheongju () is the capital and largest city of North Chungcheong Province in South Korea. History Cheongju has been an important provincial town since ancient times. In the Cheongju Mountains, specifically in the one where Sangdang Sanseong is ...

and

Chungju Chungju (충주시) is a city in North Chungcheong province, South Korea. Uamsan is a mountain located within the outskirts of the city. The city is famous for the annual martial arts festival held in October. Also of note, former UN Secretary ...

''en route.''

Cheongju International Airport Cheongju International Airport (Hangul: 청주국제공항; Hanja: 淸州國際空港; Revised Romanization: Cheongju Gukje Gonghang; McCune-Reischauer: Ch'ŏngju Kukche Konghang) is an international airport in Cheongwon-gu, South Korea. It als ...

is located near the rail line.

History

Prewar

The first section of the line was opened by the privately owned Chōsen Central Railway in 1921, which became part of the Chōsen Railway (''Chōtetsu'') in 1923. Chōtetsu then continued to extend the line until 1928 to Chungju as follows: Plans existed to continue the line from Chungju to

Yeongwol Yeongwol County (''Yeongwol-gun'') is a county in Gangwon Province, South Korea. It is well known as the place where King Danjong, the sixth king of Joseon Dynasty, was exiled when he was forced to abdicate by his uncle, who became Sejo of Joseon ...

, but after the end of Japanese rule this plan was abandoned until 1949, after which the extension was built as the

Korean National Railroad The Korea Railroad Corporation ( Korean: 한국철도공사, Hanja: ), branded as KORAIL (코레일, officially changed to in November 2019), is the national railway operator in South Korea. Currently, KORAIL is a public corporation, manag ...

Taebaek Line Taebaek Line is a single-track electrified railway mainline connecting Jecheon station to Baeksan station in South Korea. At its two ends, the Taebaek Line connects to the Jungang Line and Yeongdong Line. The line was originally two spur line ...

. In the November 1942 timetable, the last issued prior to the start of the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vas ...

, Chōtetsu operated the following schedule of local passenger services ("R" indicates that train was operated by railcar):Tōa Travel Co. (東亜旅行社), Ministry of Railways Combined Timetable 1 November 1942 (鐵道省編纂時刻表昭和１７年１１月１日)

Postwar

Like the other private railways this line was also nationalized after the independence of Korea. The rest section of the line was opened on January 10, 1959.

Upgrade

Until the 1980s the section Osong–Baongyang (110.6 km) was reconstructed with the double track and the part of the railway was moved. The entire line was electrified on 30 March 2005. On September 1, 2010, the South Korean government announced a strategic plan to reduce travel times from Seoul to 95% of the country to under 2 hours by 2020. As part of the plan, the Chungbuk Line is to be upgraded for 230 km/h and may see

KTX Korea Train eXpress (), often known as KTX (), is South Korea's high-speed rail system, operated by Korail. Construction began on the high-speed line from Seoul to Busan in 1992. KTX services were launched on April 1, 2004. From Seoul Station the ...

service. The movie ''

Peppermint Candy ''Peppermint Candy'' () is a 1999 South Korean drama film by Lee Chang-dong, his second. The film opens with the implied suicide of the protagonist and uses reverse chronology to depict some of the key events of the past 20 years of his life t ...

'' was shot near Gongjeon station.

Route

Original route

References

Japanese Government Railways 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 R ...

, (1937), 鉄道停車場一覧. 昭和12年10月1日現在(The List of the Stations as of 1 October 1937), Kawaguchi Printing Company, Tokyo, p 507 {{ChosenRyLines Railway lines in South Korea Airport rail links Railway lines opened in 1921 Chosen Railway