GTXtension(s) - fast transit rather than mass commuting?

In case you missed it, three new projects of GTX (Great Train eXpress) lines were announced earlier this year. Since we're getting closer to the inauguration of the first section on March 30 (GTX-A from Suseo to Dongtan), but also to key elections on April 10, I'll spare you all the wonderful urban development pledges that have popped up from all sides (I guess merging Gimpo with Seoul was one of the most radical), and talk a bit more about these Great Train extensions and GTX-tensions.

By stretching ABC and adding DEF, the network reaches further North, South, West, and East, and draws a first ring around Seoul and across Gyeonggi-do (GTX-F):

If GTX clearly brings places closer together, dividing by 3 the time to join Suseo and Dongtan, and if it reaches relatively fast speeds (105 km/h in its inaugural section, with peaks at 180 km/h), the system is 'express' in the sense that it makes few stops. And so far, it has more or less managed to resist intense pressure to add intermediary stations, particularly within Seoul. 

Which makes the success of seamless multimodal transport hubs even more critical, and I'm not sure that will be the case from day one. 'Luckily', the traffic shall not be too massive, because as it is conceived now, GTX can't really handle mass commuting. 

Beyond the limited number of trains per hour, their shortness is an issue, and commuters may struggle to find a spot to hop in, particularly in intermediary stations. I've experienced rush hour on Paris region's RER, with its long, double-decker trains, and that's not always pleasant... We may not see scenes similar to Line 9 saturation on steroids, but expect at least significant frustration from a lot of people who were expecting GTX as the instant panacea.

GTX provides fast transit before mass transit, it shortens connections before coping with mass commuting, and that's already something big. Even if you won't commute to work there, simply knowing that you can go to Seoul very quickly for lunch, dinner, or on a weekend can make moving far away less alienating. 

These massive and costly extensions do add Gangwon-do (Chuncheon and Wonju) and Chungcheongnam-do (Cheonan) to the equation, but also risk of further widening the gaps between sudogwon (Seoul-Incheon-Gyeonggi) and the rest of Korea as well as within the capital region and within the capital itself. With its relatively cheap fees (KRW 3.2K + 250 per 5 km), GTX may even cannibalize such alternatives as KTX.

The choices of routes and stations is always debatable and many areas within and beyond Seoul will remain underserved, but I always welcome transversal approaches in transport, and cooperation within the capital region. Nowadays, Seoul is collaborating much closer with Gyeonggi-do, including for its Climate Card now, and a ring bringing Gyeonggi closer together and bypassing the capital altogether marks a significant step.

Somehow, GTX is forcing the emergenceof  the grand vision, the great debate that's always been lacking. The way this whole region keeps developing remains a litany of missed opportunities, particularly since most of this urban and transport development (or lack of) relied on new towns built from scratch. And you know how often I complain about so much urban planning without urbanism or planning.

Now we're hearing about covering the Gyeongin Expressway and the rift between the Eastern and Western sides of Dongtan new town, and both will cost a fortune, but the Seoul-Inchon axis dates from ages ago, and that rift should have been solved from Dongtan's very conception. As demographics plummet and finances shrink, Korea can't afford not to get it right from the beginning. 

This nation is so great at alphabets, it should contemplate beyond ABCDEF.

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Wonju's Academy Theater

While Korea keeps mass producing movie theater 'chaebolplexes'*, old landmarks keep disappearing one by one. The very last hidden gem lies in Wonju's center, one block away from the Minsok Pungmul Market. Built in 1963, Academy Theater closed its doors in 2006, but over the past few years, citizens have been involved in its revival as a cultural experience many cities would die to propose.

Forget home cinema: this is the home of cinema, complete with the owner's quarters above the theater. And this is not your usual, overly sanitized and storytold, clinically urban-regenerationed space, but a genuine time capsule that preserved, beyond its walls, a unique atmosphere, details that make all the difference; whole rows of seats from the origins, an actual silver screen, ancient projectors and accessories, vantage points for the police to monitor the audience, even a pool overlooked by a wall featuring in 3D Doctor Zhivago or Lawrence of Arabia (as close to the originals as that cult statue of Cristiano Ronaldo)...

... or this incredible ticket booth:

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The tiny ticket booth of #Wonju's old #movietheater, #아카데미극장. The cashier would sit on the floor, where #ondol left a snaky mark. #온돌 #원주

A post shared by Stephane MOT (@stephanemot) on Jul 31, 2020 at 1:22am PDT

We learned from Steve Shields** that back in early 1976, when he went there, this ticket booth didn't have ondol but a stove, with an exhaust pipe to the street "belching horrible black smoke and noxious fumes. The ondol in this photo, as scary as it looks, was a marked improvement."

Steve also confirmed that the police monitored the audience, but "those cops were usually plain clothes. In any event, there were armed soldiers everywhere on the streets guarding against NK infiltrators. Always on the lookout for hair length violation too. We learned to simply mind our own business, behave properly."

Generations of citizens laughed, cried, and more or less 'properly' kissed in this Academy, now the sole survivor among the five movie theaters that were built in Wonju between 1945 and 1969***. The army base one, Gunin Geukjang, disappeared in 1996. The other four dotted the C-road (now Pyeongwon-ro), which logically became known as Cinema Road. But in 2006, they all closed: one year before, the first multiplex had landed in the city. Singonggan and the oldest of them all, Wonju Theater, were destroyed in 2008. The youngest one, Munhwa Theater, disappeared in 2015. Saving Academy Geukjang became an emergency.

I'm not talking therapeutic relentlessness: this landmark doesn't have to compete with Wonju multiplexes, nor with its nondescript facilities (e.g. Chiak Art Center or Baekun Art Hall). It will naturally and simply bring something a 355,000 citizen-strong city needs to make full cultural sense, but can never build from scratch. Not a time capsule stuck in the past, but a future-proof place all generations will love and feel proud of. From an urbanism point of view as well, that's a no brainer - just look at the map.

And there's a much greater potential than for a place like La Pagode, the very special movie theater I went to decades ago in Paris, closed for years and now in a miserable state, but on the right track to be renovated: Academy Geukjang is much bigger and open; a major landmark on a major axis. I loved to see the passion among the citizens, and from the Wonju Media Center. I will love to see Wonju youth, and people from much further away flock to it.

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* a "Saving Korean cinema... and even Chaebolplex"

** As he reacted to my post on Korea Heritage Society's Facebook page.

*** useful context from "'원주 마지막 단관 극장' 아카데미극장…"보존해야"" (Yonhap News Agency 20170926)

Freeways as Dividers, Connectors, and Destinations

On Chuseok, I have a special thought for Korea Expressway teams. This is their busiest moment of the year, and they have no time to spend with their families because they want to make sure you do it safely.

Last spring, I visited their facilities in Gungnae-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do. A great moment! That's where they monitor the traffic for the whole nation, and where they broadcast 176 updates every day.

And live from Korea expressways main broadcasting station
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/482092363821481984

From Korea Expressway's control room
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/488670603504005120

They're also right at Seoul's main gateway. You know how much I love to wander along Seoul alleyways, but I must confess that I enjoyed overlooking tens of lines of traffic from the rooftop of that tollgate:



This four-decade-old structure stretches for 400-500 m over Korea's main backbone: Gyeongbu Expressway, a.k.a. Expressway No. 1. The site reminded me how freeways can be at the same time fantastic connectors, great dividers, and awesome destinations.

*** HIGHWAYS AS CONNECTORS ***

Korean regions are much better interconnected than they were a couple of decades ago, and from 3,762 km in 2013, the national expressway network will grow to 6,160 km by the end of the decade. If the old Seoul-Busan diagonal remains clearly visible, the grid will be more balanced, with 7 North/South and 9 East/West axes. All points on mainland shall be within only 30 mn from an exit.

The network now and tomorrow (Korea Expressway Corporation - ex.co.kr)

When Beijing's building its 7th ring road (940 km), Korea's capital region is still working on its 2nd belt: after the "100", Sudogwon's "400" will connect Incheon, Ansan, Songsan, Bongdam, Osan, Ichon, Gangsang, Yangpyeong, Hwado, Pocheon, Paju, and Gimpo.

*** HIGHWAYS AS DIVIDERS ***

Of course, highways are not necessarily a sign of progress, and many in Korea still believe that adding roads is the only solution to all traffic problems. And even before talking about induced demand: how many times did we see public transportation systems be considered only after the construction of a New Town?

Cities and highways are mutually exclusive, that's why everything must be made to prevent them from meeting. That's also why Los Angeles cannot be considered a city, and Seoul is struggling to survive. And don't try to limit direct contacts at ground level by elevating the roads: it only worsens the situation (see for instance "Along Hongjecheon, my way or the highway").

Beltways that actually relieve urban centers can be a lesser evil, but even they can increase traffic and environmental damage (see for example the not really discreet Incheon-Ansan section of Seoul's second belt in the 2nd part "Connectivity, Continuity and Consistence" of my "Songdo, DMC: sequence is of the essence" trilogy).

Now back to that tollgate and Expressway No. 1. The view below illustrates how that Amazon of concrete divides the landscape even more dramatically than a natural or political border - hard to tell if the odds for a pedestrian to survive a crossing are better than at the DMZ: 

Live from Seongnam, on the top of Seoul's gateway, Korea's main tollgate (3M cars on a rush hour).
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/482090698359832576
(NB: West to the right, East to the left)

The contrast is even more spectacular on Google Maps:

• To the East, Bundang stretches its 'apateu' blocks around Tancheon stream.
• To the much West, from the green slopes of Gwanggyosan, the narrow valleys of Gungnae-dong and Geumgok-dong join Daewangpangyo-ro, a road parallel to the freeway from Geumgok I.C. (South) to Seoul beltway #100 via Pangyo New Town (North). 
• In the center, Expressway No. 1 and its tollgate bulge (reminds me of the boa that swallowed an elephant in 'Le Petit Prince'):

The tollgate from above (NB: West to the left, East to the right)

I clearly remember watching, during the nineties, Bundang New Town rise from a sea of cranes, while the suburbs on the Western side remained stuck in time - and the mountains relatively spared.

I also remember wondering why natural embankments were not included in the New Town's original master plan: instead of the usual sinister noise barriers, green slopes would have made that side of the freeway much more pleasant. I knew that it took more space, but when you build a town from scratch, you shouldn't compromise on key elements that impact its sustainability and its perception both from the inside and from the outside...

Pangyo New Town didn't fare much better a couple of years later (see "Pangyo from scratch to crash"): noise barriers? checked - elevated highway? checked... Of course urban planners didn't seize the opportunity to cover a wide section of the highway between Bundang and Pangyo...

But I've already spilled way too much venom on Korea's New Towns here and there, and they're not the topic of the day. Furthermore, 'greenfield new towns' like Bundang now belong to the past (see "New Town out, Redevelopment in, back to the Urban Jungle").

*** HIGHWAYS AS DESTINATIONS ***

Many people see highways as tunnels in time, a moment when life is suspended between a departure and a destination, a lost moment. But the path is a destination in itself, and freeways remain an eternal source of inspiration - beyond the vast 'road movie' culture.

Smooth roads, green rest areas equipped with showers, lounges, and free wi-fi... the freeway experience in Korea has nothing to do with the nightmare of yore, and the people in charge are fully aware of importance of always improving safety and quality, of making the most of existing infrastructures (e.g. solar energy production on abandoned roads). They truly care about - yes - your happiness.

So if you drive during this Chuseok break, even if you are stuck in thick traffic, relax.

And don't hesitate to stretch time. Don't forget to take a break every two hours, the rest areas are also here for that. Why not opt out and back in, seize the opportunity and discover a part of Korea you didn't plan to see?

With my new friend in Gangwon-do. Her potatoes were fantastic, and her joy illuminated our day.
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/483117975265087488
(Last June, during a trip in Gangwon-do, we were invited to Gwirae-myeon, Wonju-si. Now bypassed by a bigger road, the village has seen many shops and restaurant close, which gives it a very special atmosphere)

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KTX coast to coast Incheon-Gangneung

It was part of the Pyeongchang 2018 bid but now that's official: the KTX Incheon airport line will be prolonged all the way to Gangneung by 2015, connecting key entry points (ICN, Seoul) to the future olympic venues and the East Sea. A major milestone for a national network in permanent development for conventional as well as high speed lines.

Historically, Korean railways followed the Seoul-Busan axis: the Gyeongbu Line and Jungang Line are basically Nortwest-Southeast parallels, the former starting from Seoul Station and the latter from Cheongnyangni (two multimodal hubs about to be more closely connected in the future).

The KTX dramatically shrunk distances, and now Daejeon competes with Daegu as the main hub between the capital and Busan because it lies at the intersection of the KTX Gyeongbu Line (Seoul-Busan 2h10)and the Honam Line (Seoul-Mokpo 1h46). Initially planned for 2014, Seoul-Gangneung is expected to take 1h39, largely within the goal set by railway authorities for all intra-korean lines (two hours maximum).

The Incheon Airport KTX line (not to be confused with the AREX - "AREX on time for Seoul - Gimpo - Incheon" - even if it shares the infrastructure) reaches Wonju West station in Gangwon-do, with 5 stops in between:
- Susaek (Gyeongui Line, close to the DMC and Subway Line 6) in Susaek-dong, Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul
- Yongsan (other KTX lines, Jungang Line, and Subway Line 1) in Hangangno 3-ga, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
- Cheongnyangni (Jungang Line, Gyeongwon Line) in Jeonnong-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul
- Mangu (Gyeongchun Line, Jungang Line, Subway Line 1) in Sangbong-dong, Jungnang-gu, Seoul
- Yongmun (Jungang Line) in Yangpyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do

The old Wonju Station being also on Jungang Line, this is basically an AREX-Jungang combo.

The Wonju-Gangneung extension will connect the two cities that gave their name to the Gangwon-do province when it was founded in 1395 (GANGneung + WONju = GANGWON). Wonju remained the capital for centuries but now Chuncheon rules: it claims 1.4 mn souls compared to 310,000 for Wonju and 230,000 for Gangneung.

Only two stops are scheduled between WON and GANG: Pyeongchang and Daegwallyeong, both in Pyeongchang-gun. Daegwallyeong is famous for the Daegwallyeong Sheep Farm, but two major olympic venues are located in this myeon: Alpensia and Yongpyong resorts.

When I think that driving to Yongpyong took us 6 hours back in 1992, if we were smart enough to leave Seoul before 6 AM to avoid the traffic on the old road... infrastructures have so much improved over the past two decades!

Well. Not all infrastructures proved successful. This new KTX line looks like another nail in Yangyang International Airport's coffin: that's by far the closest one to Pyeongchang as the crow flies, and it's quite ok (yours truly used it back in 2002), but it's a commercial flop and totally desert except for the occasional charter flight.

Even on steroids, a crow cannot beat a KTX.

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