Gwacheon City Formally Requests Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to Maintain Wiyeol-Gwacheon Line Original Plan and Add New Station in Gwacheon-Gwacheon District

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Yu Je-seong] Gwacheon City announced on the 21st that it has formally requested the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to proceed with the Wiyeol-Gwacheon Line according to the original planned proposal and to establish an additional new station within the Gwacheon-Gwacheon District.

To this end, the city visited the Railway Investment and Development Division of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 9th and 15th of last month on two separate occasions, submitted a proposal containing the relevant content, and requested that the original plan for the Wiyeol-Gwacheon Line—the ‘Juam Station to Yangjaei IC Station within the district center’—be maintained. Additionally, the city jointly proposed establishing an additional new station within the Gwacheon District to address increased transportation demand in the Gwacheon-Gwacheon District.

The Wiyeol-Gwacheon Line is a metropolitan railway project designed to resolve chronic traffic congestion in the Gwacheon-Sadang and Gwacheon-Yangjaei sections. Currently being pursued through private proposal methods, it is a 28.25km double-track electrified railway connecting from the Government Complex Gwacheon to Apgujeong and Legal Town, with total project costs of 3.1876 trillion won, including a 400 billion won contribution to the Gwacheon-Gwacheon District's metropolitan traffic improvement measures.

The city explained that once corporate recruitment in the Gwacheon-Gwacheon District is completed, the floating population linked to tourism, commercial, and medical facilities will increase, and when occupancy begins in earnest, there is a possibility of expanded traffic congestion and residential complaints. Accordingly, the city maintains the position that proactive expansion of metropolitan railways is necessary.

Additionally, among the Gwacheon-Gwacheon Public Housing District's metropolitan traffic improvement measures, some projects have unclear implementation entities or differences among agencies, making changes unavoidable in terms of implementation conditions. The city has therefore proposed adding a new station on the Wiyeol-Gwacheon Line as a substitute for the projects requiring implementation changes (totaling 1.73 trillion won in scale). The city emphasized that this could distribute regional transportation demand and improve traffic conditions.

A city official stated, "The Juam District is an area where no metropolitan traffic improvement measures have even been established, so by positioning a station within the district center to maximize usage rates, and for the Gwacheon-Gwacheon District, we will continue to coordinate with relevant agencies so that the establishment of an additional new station can be reviewed utilizing the metropolitan traffic improvement contribution funds."

Meanwhile, the city expressed clear opposition to the government's recently announced plan to supply public housing on a scale of 9,800 units around the Gyeongma Park area. The city stated, "In a situation where some projects of the Gwacheon-Gwacheon District's metropolitan traffic improvement measures are inevitably subject to change, if additional housing supply occurs, the burden on regional traffic could be further aggravated," and added, "Development without sufficient traffic measures in place requires a complete reexamination."