President Yoon pledges high-speed rail expansion around Seoul

The GTX-A line will first open up the line from Suseo Station in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, to Gyeonggi's Dongtan Station in March next year.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, center, greets commuters who travel in and out of the metropolitan area aboard a GTX-A train at Dongtan Station in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, on Monday. The GTX-A train route will make an initial launch next March. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged to speed along high-speed railway systems to alleviate commuters' frustrations traveling in and out of the Seoul metropolitan area as he visited Dongtan Station in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, on Monday.

Yoon inspected the Great Train Express Line A, or GTX-A, an underground high-speed commuter rail network eventually set to connect Unjeong Station in Paju, Gyeonggi, to Hwaseong's Dongtan Station, running through Samseong Station and Suseo Station in southern Seoul.

The president discussed solutions to metropolitan transportation problems in a meeting aboard a GTX-A train ahead of its opening next year, speaking with some 20 residents of the metropolitan area, including Dongtan, Incheon, Paju and Seoul, transportation officials and experts.

"I took the Gimpo Goldline once on my way to work during the presidential election, and it was really difficult," Yoon said, referring to a notoriously congested subway line connecting Gimpo, Gyeonggi, to the capital's subway system through Gimpo International Airport Station.

The GTX project plans a high-speed commuter rail network connecting the Seoul capital area with the outskirts of the metropolitan region.

The GTX-A line will first open up the line from Suseo Station in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, to Dongtan Station in March next year, a month earlier than initially scheduled.

Construction for the GTX-C line, connecting Deokjeong Station in Yangju, Gyeonggi, to Gyeonggi's Suwon Station, will begin at the end of this year, and GTX-B, connecting Incheon National University Station in Incheon's Yeonsu District to Maseok Station in Namyangju, Gyeonggi, will begin early next year.

Opening up an "era of 30-minute commutes to and from work in the metropolitan area" through the prompt construction and operation of the GTX railway is one of Yoon's election pledges and policy tasks.

"We will complete the metropolitan express transportation system with a sense of urgency," Yoon told the commuters.

Yoon further promised additional routes, including Line D, connecting Gyeonggi's Gimpo and southern parts of the metropolitan area from east to west; Line E, connecting Incheon to Gyeonggi's Guri and Namyangju and Line F, a circular route around the metropolitan area.

Yoon noted that the initial anticipated fare for the GTX will be expensive, at around 4,000 won ($3).

Noting it could burden commuters, differentiated discounts may be applied to different socioeconomic groups, such as 20 percent off for regular commuters, 30 percent off for students and up to 53 percent for low-income and socially disadvantaged people.

Yoon emphasized the socioeconomic changes that the GTX railway will bring, changing the spatial landscape of the metropolitan area and creating new industries and jobs along the GTX routes, the presidential office said.

Yoon said that the GTX railway is about building a "hyper-connected metropolitan economic living zone," which will bring "great change to not only the convenience of transportation but also the real estate and industrial economic landscape."

This includes creating jobs in the northern Gyeonggi and Chuncheon areas, new housing sites near train stations and more stabilized housing prices due to the distribution of housing demand outside of the capital area.

In January 2022, then-presidential candidate Yoon promised to expand the A and C routes to Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, among the three GTX routes planned by the preceding Moon Jae-in administration. He also pledged to build three additional routes.

The meetings come amid the conservative People Power Party's (PPP) push to incorporate Gyeonggi's Gimpo and other cities surrounding the capital into Seoul. Some Democratic Party (DP) members have been critical of the Seoul mega-city project, calling it a political ploy with around five months left until the general elections next April, while others raised concerns over gerrymandering.

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong also reported the government's efforts and achievements to improve metropolitan transportation.

The Korea Transport Institute said the GTX construction project could provide employment for some 210,000 people and bring an economic effect of some 30 trillion won.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]