Chassan – Rajin railway line

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The Chassan – Rajin railway is the only cross-border railway between Russia and North Korea . The section of the route in North Korea is 54 km long.

Location in the transport network

The line is a continuation of the Baranovsky – Chassan line , the northern end of which joins the Trans-Siberian Railway . The route leads from Chassan , located directly on the border river Tumen , to the North Korean border station at Tumangan and from there to the always ice-free port of Rajin .

history

Historic route

The line was partially opened for the first time on November 16, 1929. First she crossed the border river Tumen on a wooden bridge, which was replaced in 1959 by a steel bridge, the "Bridge of Friendship". In 1988, 4.8 million tons of goods were transported over the border crossing. The movement of goods collapsed drastically after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and in 2002 was less than 100,000 tons. Due to the loss of importance of the connection, the maintenance of the line was neglected. In addition, there were financial disputes between the two railway administrations.

The route led from Chassan, located directly on the Tumen, in Russian broad gauge to Tumangan in North Korea. There, the gauge changed to standard gauge by the end of 2011 . Because of the lane change, goods were reloaded at Tumangang station , but railway cars can also be rescheduled . This applies in particular to the continuous sleeping car connection Moscow - Pyongyang , which runs every two weeks on the route , which is driven in a North Korean sleeping car and, at 10,267 km, enables one of the longest train journeys in the world without changing trains.

Route of the Rasonkontrans

The Russian Railways (RŽD) and the North Korean Railways agreed in 2008 to expand the route in North Korea and the port in Rajin, which is also located in a special economic zone . Construction work for this began in October 2008. The project was intended to upgrade the existing, but ailing route for the exchange of goods between East Asia and Europe and to turn the route, which until now had almost exclusively regional importance, into an international transit route. This happened in the form that a joint company "Rasonkontrans" was founded, to which North Korea leased the Tumangang - Rajin route for 49 years.

The renovation work carried out on the line also included a second track in Russian gauge, which now enables freight trains to pass through to the port of Rajin without changing gauges or reloading. The inaugural train from Rajin to Chassan, pulled by the RŽD's TEM2 1422, ran the line on October 13, 2011. On September 22, 2013 the completion of the renewed line was celebrated. The project comprised the renewal of 18 bridges, 12 culverts and three tunnels.

Both Russian broad-gauge and Korean standard-gauge trains can reach the port of Rajin, and the tracks have four rails .

At the same time, in contrast to Vladivostok, the always ice-free port of Rajin was expanded so that from 2013 200,000 TEU container equivalents and 5 million tons of coal can be handled there annually . Ships go from Rajin to the Asian Pacific region and even to the port of Busan , whose container port has been in fifth place worldwide in terms of handling since 2003, the most important logistics center for international trade with South Korea .

future

The RŽD is pursuing the long-term goal of a railway line from South Korea through North Korea in order to enable a continuous rail connection to Europe. This is to be financed through an international consortium. However, North Korea's isolationism stands in the way of this: the rail link between North and South Korea, which has been in existence again since May 2007 and was primarily intended to connect the Kaesŏng industrial zone in North Korea to the western infrastructure, is currently without traffic.

literature

  • jst: Modernization of the route from Russia to North Korea . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 12/2012, p. 617.
  • Hayato Kokubu, 将軍 様 の 鉄 道 北 朝鮮 鉄 道 事情 (Shōgun-sama no Tetsudō), Shinchosha, 2007, ISBN 978-4-10-303731-6
  • 鉄 道 省 編 ( Ministry of Railways ), p. 504: 鉄 道 停車場 一 覧 昭和 12 年 10 月 1 日 現在 (The station list), 1937

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 朝鮮 總督 府 官 報 (The State Journal of the Governor General of Korea), October 30, 1929
  2. ^ Aidan Foster-Carter: How North Korea was lost - to China . In: Asia Times Online , September 16, 2010, accessed September 7, 2017.
  3. ↑ After jst: modernization , construction work began in 2009.
  4. ↑ В Северной Корее началась реконструкция железной дороги в Россию. deita.ru, October 5, 2008, archived from the original on July 12, 2012 ; Retrieved September 7, 2017 (Russian, "Restoration of the railroad to Russia started in North Korea").
  5. ↑ North Korean Rail Link completed . In: Railway Gazette International , September 29, 2013, accessed on September 7, 2017 (with photo, English).