SOUTH KOREA: Construction started with a groundbreaking ceremony on February 3 on the 174·6 km high speed line linking Gimcheon at the intersection of the Seoul – Busan high speed line and the Central Inland Line with the island city of Geoje.
Designed for 250 km/h running, the single-track Southern Inland line will plug Geoje into the national rail network. The line will include South Korea’s first undersea rail tunnel, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport reports. This 2·1 km fixed link would run from Tongyeong on the mainland to Geoje.
The line will also offer a more direct route for trains from Seoul to Masan and Jinju, eliminating the current detour via Samnangjin.
Planning works have been underway since 2019, and the project cost is estimated at 7·097tr won.
Shield method
The undersea tunnel is to be bored using the shield tunnelling method, minimising noise, vibration and impact on the marine ecosystem and fishing.
At river crossings, long-span bridge construction methods will be used, providing increased distance between pillars, which is also intended to protect the river bed and ecosystem.
The ministry expects the line to help boost the regional economy and tourism, as well as enhancing the competitiveness of regional strategic industries including aerospace, shipbuilding and defence.
Service pattern
Upon completion, 18 services per day are planned to run in each direction from Seoul and Suseo stations in the capital to Geoje, plus seven to Masan via Jinju. These will use EMU-320 high speed trains.
The journey time between Seoul and Geoje is expected to be 2 h 50 min, compared to a current journey times by bus of between 4 h 30 min and 5 h. Seoul – Jinju times would be brought down to 2 h 20 min from the current 3 h 30 min.
