Donghae Bukbu Line

Donghae Bukbu Line
Overview
Native name	동해북부선(東海北部線)
Type	Heavy rail, Freight rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Gangwon (South Korea) Gangwon (North Korea)
Termini	Jejin Kamho
Stations	2
Operation
Opened	Stages between 1929-1937
Closed	1 January 1967 (Sokcho–Yangyang)
Owner	Korea Rail Network Authority
Operator(s)	Korail
Events
reopening	17 May 2007
Technical
Line length	11.1 km (6.9 mi)
Number of tracks	Single track
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Route map • Operating points and lines Kumgangsan Chongnyon Line 0.0 Kamho ↑DPRK/ROK↓ 5.1 Chogu Until 1950 11.1 Jejin 21.1 Hyeonnae 28.5 Geojin 35.9 Ganseong 42.6 Gonghyeonjin 48.5 Munam 54.4 Cheonjin–ri ↑Goseong/Sokcho↓ 60.9 Sokcho 66.7 Daepo ↑Sokcho/Yangyang↓ 70.4 Naksansa 77.8 Yangyang

Donghae Bukbu Line
Hangul	동해북부선
Hanja	東海北部線
Revised Romanization	Donghae Bukbuseon
McCune–Reischauer	Tonghae Pukpusǒn

• Operating points and lines

The Donghae Bukbu Line is a former railway line that connected the present-day city of Anbyon in Kangwon Province, North Korea, with Yangyang, Gangwon Province, South Korea. It has not carried trains since the division of Korea. The line originally connected to the Gyeongwon Line running from Gyeongseong (present-day Seoul) to Wonsan.

It began running in 1929 between Anbyon and Hupgok, and was extended to Yangyang in 1937. Plans had called for it to be extended south to Pohang, where it would have connected with the Donghae Nambu Line. However, this extension was not completed before the fall of the Japanese regime in 1945, and since then the tracks have been idle.

With increasing talk of peaceful Korean reunification beginning in the 1990s, there have been various efforts to reopen the Donghae Bukbu Line, together with the Gyeongui Line in the west. An opened Donghae Bukbu Line would provide ready land access to the Mount Kumgang Tourist Region, which is open to South Korean tourists. After the completion of reconstruction on the 11.1 km (6.9 mi) cross-border section between Jejin in South Korea and Gamho in North Korea, the initial test run was set for May 25, 2006, but North Korean military authorities cancelled the plans a day ahead of the scheduled event. On the South Korean side, Korail opened Jejin Station in 2006 and has maintained some for a trial run.

At a meeting held in Pyongyang, North Korea, on April 22, 2007, North and South Korea agreed to restart the project. On May 17, 2007, the first train to cross the border between North and South Korea in over 50 years entered South Korea from the North, from Kaesŏng to Dorasan on the Gyeongui line (whose northern section is known as the P'yŏngbu line). More than one million civilian visitors crossed the DMZ until the route was closed following the shooting death of a 53-year-old South Korean tourist in July 2008. After a joint investigation was rebuffed by the North, the Republic of Korea government suspended tours to the resort. Since then the resort, and the Donghae Bukbu Line, have effectively been closed by the North.

...
Wikipedia