On the 25th, Suwon City in Gyeonggi Province announced that with the groundbreaking of the Metropolitan Area Express Railway (GTX) Line C, it will be able to emerge as a 'key hub in the southern Gyeonggi metropolitan railway network.'
On the 26th, Suwon City revealed that the GTX-C line, which starts from Suwon Station and passes through Indeogwon Station, Samsung Station, Cheongnyangni Station (Seoul), Uijeongbu Station, and reaches Deokjeong Station (Yangju), officially broke ground that day.
The GTX-C line, scheduled to open in 2028, spans a total length of 86.46 km with 14 stations. The project is managed by GTX Corporation, with a total project cost of 4.6084 trillion KRW.
Suwon City expects that once the GTX-C line opens, travel time from Suwon Station to Samsung Station (Seoul) will be reduced to 27 minutes, and reaching northern Gyeonggi will take less than an hour, significantly cutting travel times.
Suwon City explained that upon completion of all ongoing railway network projects, including the GTX-C line, the number of subway stations, which was 4 in 2012, will increase by more than 20, and travel times from Suwon to major stations in the metropolitan area and nationwide will be drastically reduced.
The 'Shinbundang Line Gwanggyo~Homaesil Section Extension Project,' which passed the preliminary feasibility study in January 2020, is scheduled to begin construction, and the 'Dongtan-Indeogwon Double-Track Railway Construction Project,' connecting Indeogwon (Anyang), Suwon, and Dongtan (Hwaseong), is also about to start construction.
Once the Shinbundang Line extension (10.1 km) from Gwanggyo to Homaesil opens, travel from Homaesil to Gangnam will take less than 50 minutes. Currently, it takes about 100 minutes by express bus during rush hour, so the travel time will be cut by about half.
The Dongtan-Indeogwon Line, connecting Indeogwon (Anyang) to Uiwang, Suwon, Yongin (Heungdeok), and Hwaseong (Dongtan), spans 37.1 km, with 6 stations planned in the Suwon section (13.7 km, sections 4 to 9).
The 'Suwon-origin KTX Direct Connection Project,' which constructs railway tracks connecting Seojeong-ri Station and Jije Station to make Suwon Station a KTX departure hub, and the Dongtan Urban Railway (tram) extension to Mangpo Station are also underway. Additionally, together with Yongin, Seongnam, Hwaseong cities, and Gyeonggi Province, the 'Seoul Subway Line 3 Extension and Southern Gyeonggi Metropolitan Railway Joint Project' is being promoted.
Lee Jae-jun, Mayor of Suwon City, stated, "The citizens' wish for a 'Suwon-Gangnam 30-minute era' has come closer to reality," adding, "Our city's efforts, which worked tirelessly to advance the start of construction, have finally borne fruit."
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