Wolmi Sea Train

The Wolmi Sea Train (월미바다열차), formerly known as Wolmi Galaxy Rail, is a monorail on the island of Wolmido in Incheon, South Korea. The monorail line has 4 stations and cover 6.1km connecting Wolmido Island to Incheon Station, the west terminus of Seoul Subway Line 1 and the Suin Line.[1] 1.15 km is double-tracked, but the loop around Wolmido (3.94 km) is single-track. Phase 2, if built, would have added 2 km single track connecting to Dong-Incheon station, also on Metro Line 1, with a potential Phase 3 looping back to Incheon station.[1] If opened, the system would have been the first in the world to use Urbanaut technology, whose selling point is an inverse T-shaped track: large wheels run on the horizontal part of the track, while small wheels press against the rail and keep it in place.[2]

Wolmi Eunha station

The project was started in 2007, where it was originally designed to be a major monorail carrying 70 passengers. The line was scheduled to open in March 2010,[3] but opening has been repeatedly postponed.[4] The project has a poor safety record. In April 2010, a test vehicle collided with a rail inspection vehicle, causing it to crash into a station, parts of which collapsed onto the street below. In August 2010, a wheel falling from the vehicle on a test run injured a pedestrian.[5] In May 2012, a current collector fell off the train, although there were no injuries.[6] In 2011, Joongang Daily reported that construction had been indefinitely suspended due to "colossal corruption",[7] and that what had been built was set to be demolished due to "safety issues".[8] It was reported the system was not built to the specifications of the Urbanaut.[9] A technical inspection in May 2013 revealed numerous unresolved safety issues.[10] In August 2014, it was announced that the monorail was unsafe and the project would be abandoned.[11]

The cost of the entire system, originally estimated at US$60 million,[12] had risen to 110 billion Korean won (approx. US$100 million) before construction was suspended. A revised plan in 2015 cut the size of the trains to carrying 24 passengers. Construction based on the revised plan began in February 2015 aimed to complete in Fall 2016.[13] It was eventually opened on October 8, 2019[14].

References
  1. "도심관광은 전차를 타고..." 기호일보. August 22, 2007.
  2. "WOLMIDO URBANAUT MONORAIL".
  3. "예비 명물 '월미은하레일' 시험대". 현대일보. August 12, 2009.
  4. http://www.kyeongin.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=528142
  5. "Wolmido Monorail, Incheon".
  6. http://news.kukinews.com/article/view.asp?page=1&gCode=kmi&arcid=0006059807&cp=nv
  7. "Go after tax wasters". Korea JoongAng Daily.
  8. "[Viewpoint] What happened to Korean frugality?". Korea JoongAng Daily.
  9. "Wolmido Monorail, South Korea - Page 1 of 2". www.monorails.org. Archived from the original on 2011-06-17. Retrieved 2016-12-10.
  10. http://www.kyeongin.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=738327
  11. "Zigzag monorail won't operate". english.hani.co.kr.
  12. "Incheon Construction 01/10/04". www.monorails.org.
  13. "853억 고철덩어리 월미은하레일, 다시 달린다". www.ytn.co.kr. February 4, 2015.
  14. Korea Herald (2019-10-08). "Wolmi Sea Train kicks off". Retrieved 2019-10-10.

See also
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