On September 3, Seoul announced that it would be moving forward with plans for yet another light rail line – the Myeonmok Line which it has put out for tender.
The Myeonmok Line is part of Seoul’s plan for 10 new lines in the city which also includes the Sillim Line we recently posted about. There are 12 stations on the proposed 9.05km line and Seoul says that construction is expected to get underway at the end of 2017.
The Myeonmok Line begins at the busy Cheonyangni Station(청량리역) and makes its way east towards Myeonmok (면목역) where it meets Line 7; it then turns north and travels up to the final station at Sinnae (신내역) where it will connect with the Gyeongchun Line and the future Line 6 station.
While the area surrounding the route isn’t completely scarce of metro transport, the line will definitely bring improved public transport access for some inner areas of Dongdaemun-gu (동대문구) and Jungnang-gu (중랑구). Commuters that travel between Lines 1 and 7 should also find the link particularly helpful.
According to the request for proposal put out by the city, construction of the line will take five years including testing of the line, so it’s still quite a while off. Like many other projects, it will use a build-transfer-operate scheme. The project was originally put on the backburner back in 2011 after proposals received fell short of the requirements.
Do you think this will do anything to ease congestion on the main lines? On one hand, people will be able to use this line for short journeys, but on the other hand, it connects more people with line 1/4/7, so arguably could increase the crowds.