GOYANG — The city of Goyang in Gyeonggi Province is accelerating outside negotiations and follow-up administrative procedures to expand its rail network, a core pledge of the ninth popularly elected local government. Through projects including extensions of Incheon Line 2 and the Goyang-Eunpyeong Line and adding a stop at Byeokje Station on the Gyoae Line, the city aims to ease traffic congestion in the northwestern part of the Seoul metropolitan area and shorten commute times.
Goyang Mayor Min Kyung-sun has visited the National Assembly, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Ministry of Economy and Finance in person since taking office to urge that major rail projects be included in national plans and clear preliminary feasibility studies, the city said on Sept. 21.
The extension of Incheon Line 2 to Goyang — a 19.63-kilometer line running from Dokjeong Station in Incheon to the Jungsan district in Goyang, with total project costs of about 2.083 trillion won — is currently undergoing a preliminary feasibility study by the Korea Development Institute. The city is concentrating its efforts on clearing the study, drawing on revised operating guidelines adopted this year that allow evaluation criteria used for non-capital regions to be applied, and is supplementing its case with evidence on balanced regional development effects and transport demand.
The extension of the Goyang-Eunpyeong Line to Ilsan — a 2.04-kilometer stretch from Saejeol Station to Siksa-dong — is being pursued with the goal of inclusion in the fifth metropolitan area wide-area transport implementation plan. The city plans to respond pre-emptively to transport demand that will grow as the population of the Siksa and Pungdong areas rises to about 105,000. It has also secured 150 million won in study funding to review the feasibility of building a new Hwasu Station on the line, and has begun preliminary review work.
Related projects to secure mobility for local residents are also gaining momentum. The city is conducting a feasibility study on adding a stop at Byeokje Station, which was left out when service resumed last year on the Gyoae Line, and has allocated 533 million won for detailed design work on a new Hyangdong Station on the Gyeongui-Jungang Line, as well as funding for a study on a track expansion strategy, continuing step-by-step measures to expand new infrastructure.
"Rail is core infrastructure that determines a city's competitiveness," Mayor Min said. "Rather than waiting for results, I will go directly to the National Assembly, the government and wherever else is needed to explain why these projects are necessary, and I will put everything into getting them reflected in national plans and budgets."
