Transport Developments in Seoul and Korea for 2020

Happy New Year! We from Kojects wish you all the best for the new decade and thank you very much for visiting our website despite very irregular updates. A lot of exciting developments are going to happen in Korea in 2020. Let’s take a quick look!

Extensions, extensions and extensions

There will be several subway line extensions: Incheon Subway Line 1 will expand by one more station on Songdo. The Songdo Landmark City is expected to open in December 2020.

In August 2020 we can (hopefully) expect the completion of the Suin Line (수인선). Currently, the line operates from Incheon to Oido. The first phase was opened in 2012, with an extension of phase 2 in 2016. The completion of the third phase will add 7 stations and finally connect Incheon and Suwon via a direct subway line.

Subway Line 7 will be extended by October 2020 and connect to Incheon Line no. 2. The extension will be between Bupyeong-gu Office Station and Seongnam Station and add one more station to Seoul’s metro system.

The city Hanam will be made accessible through the extension of Line 5: The extension covers 5 new stations and a length of 7.8 km. This extension is often called Hanam Line. The extension will be implemented in two phases, with the first extension in April and the second extension by December.

The Gyeongui-Jungang Line will be expanded from Munsan Station to Imjingang Station. Currently, there is a rail connection with a few trains, but the electrification and expansion of the rail tracks was completed in 2019. Adding it to the wider subway network will allow more services. The 3.7 km extension will be opened in March 2020.

Improved air quality in Seoul’s city center

In December 2019 Seoul implemented the first Green Transport Promotion Zone within the city center. It aims to reduce the use of old, polluting vehicles within the area by charging them fees and increasing parking prices. It can lead to significant reductions of local air pollution cause by transport. We hope to assess the implemented policies soon in more detail.

Better walking environment

Seoul initiated in 2017 a series of urban projects to improve the walking environment within the city center. Seoullo 7017 was the kick-off project and since then six additional areas were part of the improvement. In 2020, Seoul wants to work in Bukcheon, Gwanghwamun, Jeongdong and Mugyo (areas shown in purple):

In September 2020, Seoul will host Walk21, the international conference on walking and liveable cities. Global experts working on sustainable cities and better walking will meet in Seoul to exchange ideas and discuss people-centered urban solutions. Seoul wants to show that it’s providing good walking infrastructure and thus, we can expect events and policy announcements on this topic throughout 2020. I would highly recommend everyone to follow news regarding Walk21 in Seoul and attend the conference if time allows.

2020 promises for cycling

Seoul promised to add 200 km of cycling infrastructure between 2016 and 2020 but I don’t believe that a lot the infrastructure has been realized. Seoul opened in 2018 an urban cycling pathway in the city center and introduced a new cycling paradigm last year. The only news that I came across was that Seoul will complete the bicycle paths parallel to the Cheonggyecheon all the way to the Han river. Ttareungyi, Seoul’s bikesharing system, had the target to surpass 20,000 available bicycles in 2020 but actually has already over 25,000 bicycles in their system since a couple of months.

New bus lines and bus vehicles

A global trend is the electrification of the public bus fleet. Electric buses are very price-competitive when including long-term costs of maintenance and operation into the calculation. A few electric buses are already being trialed in Seoul, Busan and Jeju. We can expect to see more buses and more news about hydrogen buses being tested in Korea.

Busan opened on 30 December 2019 a new bus rapid transit (BRT) route from Naeseong to Seomyeon (6.6 km). The BRT infrastructure increased the bus operation speed by 8-18% and increased accuracy of time tables by 20-30%. In 2021 it will be further extended by another 7.8 km.

Other rail projects

For completion, a few rail projects have to be mentioned: Freight rail lines (28 km and 14 km) connecting Gunsan’s industrial complex to the major national rail network are expected to open in November and December 2020. A double-track rail development (41 km) will be completed between Daegu and Yeongcheon. The new port of Ulsan will also receive a 9.3 km long rail connection by August 2020.

Korail will put new trains into operation: The Hyundai Rotem EMU-250 (19 trains) will serve as intercity trains on the Gyeongjeon, Seohae and Jungang lines.

Disruptive technologies

Last year, we saw the launch of various electric shared scooter services in Seoul and a few other cities. These micromobility services will expand to more districts and more cities in 2020.

From December 2019 until the end of 2021 self-driving vehicles will be tested on Seoul’s roads. Seoul and Hyundai signed an agreement to run self-driving, autonomous vehicles on the streets of Gangnam. The plan is to start the trial with 6 vehicles and slowly increase it to 15 vehicles. All vehicles will be fuel-cell electric cars.

As you can read, we can expect a lot of news and developments in 2020 improving the mobility of people. We will do our best to cover them and to inform you about the new services. If we can’t post an article, you will at least find updates on our social media channels. So please make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Sources: Future Rail Database