Mayor Kim Byung-su: "Full Effort to Extend Seoul Subway Lines 2 and 9... Creating a City Where Everyone Wants to Live"

Confirmation of Seoul Subway Line 5 Extension and Optimal Plans for Lines 2 and 9 Expansion
Increased Gold Line Trains and Aegibong's Dramatic Rise in Status
Continued Pursuit of Gimpo-Seoul Integration, Full-Scale Education Special Zone, and Accelerated Corporate Attraction This Year

Kim Byung-su, Mayor of Gimpo City, Gyeonggi Province, held the annual press conference on the 24th and announced that 2025 will be a year to actively prepare for the era of 700,000 Gimpo citizens, as well as a year to improve the residential satisfaction of Gimpo residents.

Kim Byung-su, Mayor of Gimpo City, is holding a press conference on city administration on the 24th and explaining the direction of Gimpo City this year. Photo by Lee Jong-gu

Mayor Kim Byung-su stated that 2024 was a year dedicated to elevating the Gimpo brand in various fields such as transportation, education, culture, and tourism, including ▲confirmation of the extension of Seoul Subway Line 5 ▲application for new projects to extend Seoul Subway Lines 2 and 9 to Gimpo ▲completion of designation of the Gimpo Hangang 2 Compact City district ▲passing the preliminary feasibility study for the Gimpo Environmental Regeneration Innovation Complex ▲increase in Gold Line trains ▲making Aegibong a world-famous site ▲selection of Daemyeong Port as a national fishing port ▲designation as an education special zone ▲selection as a local government for the 2025 Korea Reading Festival ▲opening of the nation’s first public veterinary clinic for companion animals in Gimpo ▲opening of the nation’s first urban hub driver’s license center ▲and the leap into the era of the 100,000 Gimpo Festival.

Mayor Kim Byung-su reflected, "2024 was a year that laid the major foundation for a new Gimpo of 700,000 people, and 2025 will be an important year for Gimpo to become a city where everyone wants to live." To this end, he emphasized that all efforts will be made to ensure that national projects opening the future of Gimpo and the construction of a railway network forming a well-connected Gimpo proceed without setbacks. He also added that as new urban development projects in Gimpo begin sales this year, bringing a fresh breeze, the city will enhance urban competitiveness and lead the local economic cycle through tangible changes in culture, tourism, and education to improve the quality of citizens’ daily lives.

This year, Gimpo City will actively expand citizen convenience by preparing for the dawn of the mesh-style railway era while expanding roads and public transportation. The city will swiftly promote the extension of Seoul Subway Line 5 to Gimpo, a metropolitan transportation improvement plan for Hangang 2 Compact City, and is determined to actively ensure that the extension projects for Seoul Subway Lines 2 and 9 are included as new projects in the 5th Metropolitan Area Wide-area Transportation Implementation Plan.

The city has established and expanded 2 bureaus, 3 divisions, and 4 teams to strengthen administrative services for citizens in response to entry into a metropolitan city. In particular, the Future Strategy Bureau was newly established to unify core functions and project promotion systems for preparing the city’s future, including new town development and railway infrastructure expansion.

Metropolitan bus routes will be expanded, and transportation convenience linked to urban rail will be strengthened.

New GTX-A connection buses 33 and 33-2 will be established, and routes 70C and 70D will be converted to regular routes. Additionally, changes to connecting bus routes will be promoted following the extension and opening of Incheon Line 1. Furthermore, the operation frequency of metropolitan buses 6601 and 6701 will be significantly increased.

The road network will also be expanded. Construction and expansion are underway or planned for highways such as the Gyeyang?Ganghwa Expressway, the Seoul Metropolitan Area 2nd Ring Expressway, and the Seochang?Gimpo Expressway, as well as the expansion of National Road No. 78 (Unyang?Jeollyu) and Local Road No. 356 (Yanggok?Daemyeong), the metropolitan road between Yakam-ri and Incheon Geocheomdo, and the metropolitan road between Geomdan and Daegok.

The Gimpo Hangang 2 Compact City and Gimpo Environmental Regeneration Innovation Complex, targeted for completion by 2033, will steadily progress. This year, the basic plan and district unit plan for Gimpo Hangang 2 Compact City will be established, and the designation of the urban development zone and development plan for the Gimpo Environmental Regeneration Innovation Complex will be pursued. The city is determined to accelerate attracting large corporations, given its status as a city with the best conditions in the metropolitan area, adjacent to the West Sea and two airports.

This year, Gimpo will continue its efforts to open air and sea routes and communicate with the world through culture. Daemyeong Port, selected as a national fishing port, will focus on fostering marine leisure and port hinterland industries. A marine leisure complex center will be built by 2031, a roadmap for introducing water transportation in Gimpo will be established, and efforts will be made to secure an extension route of the Seoul water bus to Gimpo.

Kim Byung-su, Mayor of Gimpo City (left), held a press conference on the 24th and explained the direction of Gimpo City this year. Photo by Gimpo City

The role as a leading city for Urban Air Mobility (UAM) will also continue. The city will promote the construction of a future-type transfer center within Gimpo Hangang 2 Compact City to enable arrival within 30 minutes from Gimpo to Jamsil, Seoul, and within 15 minutes to Gimpo Airport, preparing without delay and accelerating the creation of a future new industry ecosystem.

The Aegibong Peace Ecological Park, a global attraction visited by people worldwide, will create a unique meeting space this year and present distinctive day and night programs, solidifying its status as a complex cultural space where visitors can enjoy high-quality culture and a unique scenic view.

Upgraded culture and education will also change citizens’ daily lives.

Selected for three consecutive years as a leading area for education development special zones supported by the Ministry of Education, the first changes will begin this year. Changes in educational programs and budget support will be implemented following the selection of autonomous public high schools, and AI and software education programs will be provided through a partnership with Yonsei University. To provide higher-quality care, native speaker foreign language programs will be operated in care centers, and English camps and global cultural education will be promoted during vacation periods.

Gimpo was also selected as the host city for the Korea Reading Festival this year, and the 12th Korea Reading Festival will be held in Gimpo this September. The special nighttime atmosphere of Gimpo will also be fully realized. Night classes at the Lifelong Learning Center will be expanded, and the operating hours of sports facilities at night will be extended. Public late-night pharmacies will be expanded, and free nighttime opening of affiliated parking lots will be promoted. Nighttime library extensions, expanded nighttime cultural performances, nighttime star observation, and insect exploration programs will also be developed.

Efforts will be made to create 186 km of riverside walking paths by connecting disconnected streams and waterways. While maximizing the preservation of river functions, the city plans to transform these into familiar riverside paths close to citizens, aiming to brand the Gimpo riverside paths as distinctively as Jeju Olle Trails.

To expand convenience for more citizens, the city plans to continue addressing the root causes of many current inconveniences caused by mismatched living areas by gradually resolving issues toward the integration of Gimpo and Seoul this year.

Mayor Kim Byung-su pledged, “Gimpo is now a city that truly attracts nationwide attention. We must now move toward administration that can provide the best and most valuable things to our citizens, and Gimpo City will realize this through various administrative policies this year.”