On the Scene in South Korea - Mixed Reactions to PyeongChang Rail Demise

(ATR) News that South Korea will not build a direct high-speed rail link between Incheon Airport and PyeongChang is going largely unnoticed within the Winter Olympic host country.

In the wake of Jan. 4 reports that the rail line was not included in a Games budget adopted Dec. 30, follow-up statements from both the government and the 2018 organizing committee POCOG that the link had never been planned in the first place have also failed to move the vast majority of South Koreans.

"I think people see this as a political matter as not many of the general public are aware of this sort of commitment that the bidding committee had made to the IOC," Yoo Jee-ho of state news agency Yonhap tells Around the Rings.

Yoo added that little local attention is paid to the mechanics of Games preparations.

"Certainly, if you haven't been following PyeongChang closely during or after the bidding process, you may be hard pressed to establish that connection. I am not sure if the railway project got much play from the beginning, at least in Korea."

As one of the most centralized countries in the world, South Korea concentrates around half of its 50 million people in the Seoul metropolitan area, meaning news from the provinces often struggles to make an impact on the national consciousness.

Appetite for public investment in underdeveloped regions is also at a low point and not only because of the uncertain economic times.

In 2010, the country staged its first Formula One Grand Prix about 400km southwest of Seoul. Largely funded by taxpayers, the race lost around $50 million last year and shows little sign of breaking even in the near future. There’s even been talk of cancelling the race with five years left on the contract.

Gangwon Province, the eastern mountainous region in which PyeongChang resides as well as one of the country’s least developed areas, unsurprisingly sees the situation a bit differently.

Residents were looking forward to rapid connections with Seoul (175km to the west) and Incheon Airport (250 kilometers to the west). Now, according to POCOG, the trip will take between 93 to 107 minutes, still a considerable reduction from the current driving time of at least threehours.

Gangwon Daily called for the government to sort out the situation as soon as possible and noted that other public investments in the region, such as the Seoul-Chuncheon Expressway, are reaping dividends.

According to one editorial, however, more than money and economic growth are at stake.

"We promised to the IOC that we will try to do as much as possible to move visitors from Incheon Airport to PyeongChang within 70 minutes. It is a matter of trust for the international community," argued the regional newspaper.

The editorial then put forward four potential routes for a train to take from Incheon Airport before arriving at Wonju to connect with the 113km high-speed rail link that will take passengers to PyeongChang and the eastcoast city of Gangneung.

The quickest option suggested from Incheon through Seoul and onto Wonju would deliver visitors to PyeongChang just 82 minutes after leaving Incheon.

That time could further be trimmed to about 70 minutes if timetables and operating procedures were revised, according to Gangwon Daily.

POCOG declined to comment on the proposal, instead sending ATR another copy of last week’s press release stating that a direct high-speed link of 68 minutes was never considered – and that any suggestion otherwise was the result of media misreporting.

Organizers also declined to answer why PyeongChang 2018 bid chairman Yang Ho Cho is on record publicly promising a direct high-speed link of 68 minutes.

In the IOC Evaluation Commission’s official report, the IOC notes that a nearly $3 billion "high speed rail line is under construction to connect Seoul to Gangeung, significantly enhancing accessibility to and from Seoul." The report does not mention a link between Seoul and PyeongChang.

While the situation seems not to have escalated, a source close to POCOG admits to ATR that the confusion was handled poorly in the beginning. Less than 24 hours after the story broke, the organizing committee announced that a media team would be "set up soon".

Reported in Seoul by John Duerden

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