The Daegu Line is a railway line in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
. The line connects
Gacheon station on the
Gyeongbu Line
The Gyeongbu Line (''Gyeongbuseon'') is a railway line in South Korea and is considered to be the most important and one of the oldest ones in the country. It was constructed in 1905, connecting Seoul with Busan via Suwon, Daejeon, and Daegu ...
in
Daegu to
Yeongcheon
Yeongcheon () is a city in North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea.
Yeongcheon is located southeast of Seoul, in the southeast of North Gyeongsang Province. It is on the Gyeongbu Expressway linking Seoul and Busan, and is also the junction of ...
on the
Jungang Line. The line is served by frequent passenger trains between
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...
(via the Gyeongbu Line), Dongdaegu, and
Gyeongju,
Pohang
Pohang () is a city in the province of North Gyeongsang, South Korea, and a main seaport in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk region. The built-up area of Pohang is located on the alluvium of the mouth of the Hyeongsan River. The city is divided into two ...
and
Ulsan
Ulsan (), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighboring ...
(via the Jungang and
Donghae Nambu Line
The Donghae Nambu Line is a railway line connecting Busan to Pohang in South Korea. The line runs along South Korea's east coast. On December 30, 2016, it was merged into Donghae Line.
History
On October 31, 1918, an extension of the Daegu Line ...
s).
History
The first section of the Daegu Line was opened in 1917, between
Daegu and Hayang.
The line was extended to the Haksan station in
Pohang
Pohang () is a city in the province of North Gyeongsang, South Korea, and a main seaport in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk region. The built-up area of Pohang is located on the alluvium of the mouth of the Hyeongsan River. The city is divided into two ...
until 1919 as follows:
A branch was opened from
Gyeongju to
Ulsan
Ulsan (), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighboring ...
on October 25, 1921.
The sections from Gyeongju to Pohang and Ulsan were integrated into the
Donghae Nambu Line
The Donghae Nambu Line is a railway line connecting Busan to Pohang in South Korea. The line runs along South Korea's east coast. On December 30, 2016, it was merged into Donghae Line.
History
On October 31, 1918, an extension of the Daegu Line ...
on December 16, 1935. On 1 July 1938 the reconstruction of the section
Daegu–Yeongcheon was complete with the standard gauge. On 1 December 1938 the section Yeongcheon–Gyeongju became a part of the Gyeonggyeong Nambu Line (the southern part of the
Jungang Line), which was established on April 1, 1942. At the same time the present section was renamed the Daegu Line.
Upgrade
The section from Dongdaegu to Cheongcheon was replaced by a new alignment that takes the Daegu Line to meet the Gyeongbu Line at
Gacheon, lengthening the Dongdaegu–Cheongcheon line distance to .
The Dongdaegu to Cheongcheon rail distance changed to ,
line proper from Gacheon to Yeongcheon is long.
The project was launched in August 1997 with a planned completion in 2000, but economic difficulties and planning changes delayed completion, the line relocation was finally inaugurated on November 3, 2005.
Part of the project was the replacement of a branch to
Daegu Airport
Daegu International Airport (Hangul: ; Hanja: ; Revised Romanization: ''Daegu Gukje Gonghang''; McCune-Reischauer: ''Taegu Kukche Konghang'') is the international airport serving the city of Daegu and the surrounding area in the southeast of S ...
from the old alignment with a spur line paralleling the highway west from Cheongcheon to the airport, finished a year later.
The Daegu Line was considered for an upgrade to a double-tracked, electrified railway in a straighter, long alignment from 2000.
Detailed plans were prepared by 2009, the foreseen budget was 988.042 billion won, and the completion of the project was set for 2017.
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 Daegu Line is to be set out for 230 km/h and may see
KTX service.
On 28 December 2021, electrification was completed.
See also
*
Korail
*
Transportation in South Korea
Transportation in South Korea is provided by extensive networks of railways, highways, bus routes, ferry services and air routes that traverse the country. South Korea is the third country in the world to operate a maglev train, which is an autom ...
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 Ra ...
(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, pp 493–494
Railway lines in South Korea
Railway lines opened in 1917
{{SouthKorea-rail-transport-stub