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Wednesday, November 3, 2010

AREX on time for Seoul - Gimpo - Incheon

Three years after the first section between Incheon and Gimpo airports, the second section of AREX (Korail Airport Railroad) will open on schedule next December 29, putting Incheon Airport 43 mns away from Seoul Station*, where travellers will be able to check in, leaving only passport and security checks to ICN.

The reasons why a rail connection was not built from day one were not only financial : the focus on road traffic (dedicated expressway, taxis) was meant to facilitate the emergence of a(n economically) sustainable ecosystem around the new airport.

Incheon International Airport will turn 10 in 2011. It already proved a total success as a regional hub for Northeast Asia as well as for its quality of service. Over the past twelve months, ICN managed an average 579 aircraft movements (+6.2%) and 90,098 passenger movements (+17.1%) every day**, and its capacity will be boosted from 44 to 62 million passengers by 2015, and 100 millions by 2020.

On the way to Gimpo Airport station (already operational, also on subway lines 5 and 9), Seoul will open 4 new AREX stations : Seoul Station, Gongdeok, Hongik University, and DMC :



Seoul Village 2010

* that's for premium fares (no stopover, designated seats, KRW 13,300), or 53 mn if the train stops at each station (KRW 5,000).
** airport stats Nov 2009-Oct 2010 (vs Nov 2008-Oct 2009)

2 comments:

  1. Hi, do you have information about how to reach Gimpo from Incheon using AREX? Inside the AREX, does it have any monitor which shows us the current station & next station, so that i aware when the AREX almost reach Gimpo? Thanks :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Real time info on board and direct connection
    www.arex.or.kr

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comments and remarks. Also for your patience (comments are moderated and are not published right away - only way to curb the spam, sorry). S.

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