Seoul trams will no longer be museum pieces once the Wirye Line opens in 2025, bringing the transport mode back to the capital after 57 years.
On November 28, Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that the 261.4 billion won project had been approved by the Metropolitan Transport Commission and that construction would begin within the week. This means work on the project should already be underway!
Seoul trams originally operated from 1899 to 1968, disappearing with the rise of the motorcar, in line with many other cities around the world at the time.
Image: One of Seoul’s historic trams displayed outside the Seoul History Museum.
The 5.4km Wirye Line (위례선) will be located in Wirye New Town, a new urban development in the south-east of Seoul with sections in Seongnam in south-east Gyeonggi Province.
With 12 above-ground stations, trams will operate from Macheon Station (Seoul Line 5), travel south through the city of Seongnam and then to the terminus Bokjeong Station, which is also located within Seoul’s city limits.
Passengers will be able to transfer to Seoul Line 8 and the Suin-Bundang Line at Bokjeong, while a branch line will operate less frequent services to the terminus of Namwirye Station (남위례역) which also connects with Line 8.
Images: Seoul Metropolitan Government
Each tram on the Wirye Line will be made up of five carriages, with 10 trams expected to operate at intervals of every 5 minutes during peak commuting times, and every 10 minutes at other times. Trams to the Namwirye branch will operate every 10 minutes at peak times and every 15 minutes during off-peak.
The low-floor trams will be battery operated and produced by Woojin Industrial Systems which was awarded the contract in December last year. Rolling stock will be housed and maintained in the only underground part of the line, with a green park area to be built above the depot.
The Wirye Line is scheduled to be completed in September 2025 and it is hoped it will reduce traffic congestion and boost the local economy once open.
With many cities around Korea touting plans for upcoming tram lines over the past….well decade, it’s exciting to finally see this progress. It will be exciting to finally see signs of work on this project taking place.
More artist impressions released by the city can be viewed below:
Cool! Thanks for writing about that. I never would have found out about it without your article. Just another piece of evidence that proves (in my opinion anyway) that Seoul has the best mass transportation system in the world, for the money. Yeah, the Tokyo Metropolitan train network is much more extensive than Seoul/Gyeonggi. But it’s like 3 times as expensive. Seoul fills that ultra sweet spot between awesomeness and affordability.
It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely a fantastic system compared to many other cities around the world!
Welcome back! Been missing your posts during the pandemic :)
Thanks for your message. It’s great to know that people still read blogs. :) More to come!
Hello, your article is interesting. I would like to know if the Wirye project is a light rail train (LRT) or a tramway? Denis Therriault, Québec, Canada
Hi Denis. Thanks for your comment. The Wirye Line will operate trams, not to be confused with the planned “Wirye–Sinsa Line” which will be an LRT. Let’s hope they make the names a little less confusing in the future!