The day is finally here…for some anyway. The final Bundang Line Extension from Mangpo (망포) to Suwon (수원) will finally opened today (Saturday 30 November). Over the past three years the southern end of the line has been extended in stages with Jukjeon – Giheung (5.1km) and Giheung – Mangpo (7.4km) being completed in the Decembers of 2011 and 2012 respectively. Of course the northern extension from Seolleung to Wangshimni was also opened in 2012.
The extension is 5.2km long and has three new stations – Maetangwonseon (매탄권선), Suwon (수원시청) and Maegyo (매교) before arriving at Suwon Station (수원역) where it meets Line 1. “Express” services will also operate from Suwon to Jukjeon station – stopping only at Suwon, Suwon City Hall, Mangpo, Giheung and Jukjeon. Following Jukjeon, all services (including express ones) will stop at all stops since extra tracks were not built for express trains during the original construction of the line. This means that while normal services from Suwon to Wangshimni take 85 minutes, express services will still take 76 minutes. Here is an image of the express train times leaving from Wangshimni and Suwon stations (only Korean sorry).
Once the Suin Line to the west of Suwon is completed passengers will be able to travel from Wangshimni to Incheon as the Bundang and Suin lines will connect directly to one another. This is the reason why both lines are the same colour. It’s still uncertain what the combined line will eventually be called. There is also speculation that there may be some controversy over the name of the line with some news outlets reporting that Seongnam citizens are likely to want to keep the Bundang name.
Photos from the new extension can be viewed here.
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Thanks for the post! Very helpful. I happened to be in Suwon today (Nov. 30, 2013) visiting a friend who works at a department store there. So I decided to take the long way back home. And I can confirm that the new section of the Bundang line you wrote about is indeed up and running. A great service for people who live in the area. The only bummer was that (according to the schedule posted on the wall today) there are only a couple of express trains on weekday mornings. That's it. I hope they add more later. It's nice to be able to take relatively numerous express trains on line 1 from Yongsan to Dongincheon and Cheonan, even on weekends. Would be nice to see that on this line, too.
Anyway, thanks again for the post.
Hi James. Thanks for your comment. The sad fact is that most of the Bundang line wasn't designed for express trains. Only in the final southern extensions did they seem to make this part of the plans. Unfortunately from Ori Station all the way to Wangshimni it is pretty much a double track system (with the odd siding here and there of course). This is why the current express only cuts a mere 9 minutes off the trip.
I've talked about it in another post on this blog but unfortunately when the first northern extension from Seolleung to Suseo was built many years ago, those living in the Gangnam all seemed to want a subway station on their block. The result has been several very under-patronized stations and stations that are extremely close to each other.
Nevertheless we still have the Sinbundang Line which is high speed and will eventually also stretch from Suwon to the other side of the Han River in Seoul. It will just take a bit more time to build unfortunately!
I was also wondering about the express trains. According to the "Smarter Subway" app schedule, I don't see any express trains at all (checked Mangpo and Giehung stations). Are they just not marked as express trains in this app?
Hi Leifinseoul, thanks for reading. Subway apps will have to update their own schedules and unfortunately some can be quite slow at doing this. I'm not sure if you can read Korean but here is an image of the schedule for the expresses leaving from Wangshimni and Suwon. http://m.clien.net/data/file/lecture/1385265396_mCvD5zl4_2013-11-24_12.40.36-2.jpg
Metroid includes the express train schedules - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whitecrow.metroid&hl=en
Hey Daywu,Thanks for that. I'm sure all apps will be gradually updated their schedules - some just take longer than others.
Thanks for the update, yes I can read Korean, at least enough to understand the schedule!
Speaking of slow app updates, even Google Maps shows Bundang line as running from Seolleung to Giheung. However, the transit function of Google Maps correctly displays schedule information for the new stations.
Yeah, I wouldn't rely on Google maps for Korean transport information I'm sorry to say! Local is always best if you have access to it. Good to hear that it's displaying schedule info correctly though. :)