| Jeolla Line | |
|---|---|
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 전라선 |
| Hanja | 全羅線 |
| Revised Romanization | Jeollaseon |
| McCune–Reischauer | Chŏllasŏn |
The Jeolla Line is a railway line in North and South Jeolla Provinces in South Korea. The line is served by frequent passenger trains from Seoul (via the Gyeongbu and Honam Lines) to Yeosu. This line is planned to have KTX service by April 2011.
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The first railway along a section of what became the Jeolla Line was the Chonbuk Line, a private narrow-gauge railway centered on Jeonju, which was opened on November 12, 1917.[1] In 1927, the line was nationalised.[1] Work on a normal-gauge replacement line started on April 18, 1929.[2] The Jeonju–Namwon section was completed in October 1931,[2] the Namwon–Gokseong section followed in October 1933,[2] finally the Gokseong–Suncheon section[2] on December 16, 1936.[3] The Suncheon–Yeosu section, which was completed on December 25, 1930, as part of the Gwangyu Line from Songjeong-ri to Yeosu,[1] was integrated with the line from Jeonju under the new name Jeolla Line.[1] The line was completed with the reconstruction of the Iri (today Iksan) to Jeonju section in March 1937.[1]
The upgrade of the Iksan-Suncheon section started with the construction of a bypass around Jeonju with wider curves, opened in 1981.
From 1989, the first phase of the project to re-lay and double-track the line, mostly in a new alignment with wider curves, longer tunnels and bridges, was launched on three sections between Sin-ri, at the end of the Jeonju realignment, and Suncheon. The two longest new structures were the 5,671 m (18,606 ft) long[4] Byeongpung Tunnel, north of Suncheon, and the 6,128 m (20,105 ft) long Seulchi Tunnel, south of Jeonju, which became South Korea's longest rail tunnel,[4] surpassing Jeongam Tunnel on the Taebaek Line.[5] The three sections of the first phase with altogether 64.3 km, shortening the original route by 16.7 km, were finished by 1999 and entered service on May 18, 1999.[4] The two gaps between those sections were plugged in a second phase in 2002 and August 2004, the altogether 58.3 km long new sections shortened the line by another 11.4 km.[4]
The third phase of the upgrading project, started in 2002, involved the double-tracking of the remaining 35.2 km long single-track section from Iksan to Sin-ri, until the end of the Jeonju realignment, and electrification of the entire double-tracked and re-aligned section from Iksan to Suncheon, altogether 154.2 km,[6] to allow speeds of 180 km/h.[7] By March 2010, progress on the 154.2 km section from Iksan to Suncheon reached 63.0%.[6] This phase of the project is implemented as a public private partnership of the Build-Transfer-Lease (BTL) method, with a government contribution of 510.852 billion won and a BTL share of 470.699 billion won.[6] The upgrade and re-alignment of the final Suncheon-Yeosu section was launched as a separate project in 2001,[8] with work starting in December 2003.[9] As of March 2010, progress on the 40.0 km long alignment stood at 88.0% out of a total budget of 732.002 billion won.[10] The entire upgrading project is to be completed in 2011.[6][10]
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 Jeolla Line is to be further upgraded for 230 km/h.[11]
Major stations and junctions on the line:
The Jeolla Line is served by intercity Saemaul-ho trains and cross-country Mugunghwa-ho trains. As of October 2010, the travel time on Saemaul from Yongsan Station in Seoul is a minimum 3 hours 28 minutes to Jeonju, 4 hours 33 minutes to Suncheon and 5 hours 15 minutes to Yeosu, with 2 hours 30 minutes taken for the Iksan--Jeosu travel along the Jeolla Line itself. Mugunghwa trains that also start in Yongsan cover the line from Iksan to Yeosu in between a minimum of 2 hours 30 minutes and a maximum of 4 hours, depending on the number of stops.[12]
Yeosu will host the Expo 2012, and Korail timed the introduction of Korea Train Express services on the line ahead of the event.[9] Original plans foresaw a the start of Jeolla KTX services in April 2011, reducing the Seoul–Yeosu travel time to 2 hours 55 minutes, using KTX-II (KTX-Sancheon) high-speed trains.[13] In February 2011, when the necessary electrification works were 96% complete, the start of services was postponed to September 2011, and the Yongsan–Yeosu travel time was planned to be 3 hours 7 minutes.[14] After the completion of the first stage of the Honam High Speed Railway, the travel time is planned to reduce to 2 hours 25 minutes.[13]