The nationwide network of commuter rail lines has been found to be heavily concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area. As of this year, the operating length of the country's 13 commuter rail lines totals 391.1 kilometers, of which the capital region accounts for 320.3 kilometers, or 81.9%. Non-capital regions are limited to two lines in the Daegu–North Gyeongsang area, totaling 70.8 kilometers. With the confirmation of the 5th National Rail Network Plan approaching, calls to expand commuter rail in the provinces are expected to grow.
According to the status of commuter rail operations from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's Metropolitan Transport Commission on the 30th, there are 13 commuter rail lines operating nationwide this year. The capital region accounts for 11 lines totaling 320.3 kilometers, comprising most of the network. In contrast, non-capital regions have two lines totaling 70.8 kilometers, only 18.1% of the total length. By length, the open mileage in the capital region is 4.5 times that of non-capital regions.
All commuter rail lines outside the capital region are in the Daegu–North Gyeongsang area. The Daegyeong Line, which opened on Dec. 14 last year, is a 61.9-kilometer route connecting Gumi in North Gyeongsang to Gyeongsan via Daegu. It is a commuter rail line that uses the existing Gyeongbu Line and serves to link Gumi, Daegu and Gyeongsan into a single commuting zone.
On the 21st of the same month, the Ansim–Hayang double-track electric railway also opened. It is an 8.89-kilometer section extending Daegu Urban Railway Line 1 to Hayang in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang. Although it is included in official statistics as a non-capital commuter rail line, it strongly reflects the nature of an urban railway extension project. The Daegyeong Line is widely cited as a representative case of a full-fledged connection of regional commuter living zones.
In the capital region, multiple commuter rail lines such as the Gyeongui Line, Gyeongchun Line, Bundang Line, Suin Line and Shinbundang Line have already been built over a long period. With the addition of the Metropolitan Express Railway (GTX) projects, the rail network is becoming denser. By contrast, the provinces had virtually no completed commuter rail projects until the Daegyeong Line and the Ansim–Hayang double-track electric railway opened late last year.
Commuter rail is regarded as key infrastructure that goes beyond mere transportation, affecting commuting zones, industrial locations and the real estate market. When a rail network is built, travel time between downtown and surrounding cities is reduced and living zones expand. In the capital region, such effects have been repeatedly reflected in new town development and housing prices, but in the provinces, delays in building commuter rail networks have slowed the pace of living-zone expansion.
Calls to expand provincial commuter rail are growing louder with the 5th National Rail Network Plan approaching. The 5th National Rail Network Plan is the top-tier statutory plan that sets the direction of national rail investment from 2026 to 2035. A project must be included in this plan for the preliminary feasibility study, the establishment of the basic plan and discussions on state funding to get underway in earnest.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is reviewing the 5th National Rail Network Plan based on a research project by The Korea Transport Institute (KOTI). Although a July announcement this year had initially been mentioned, more weight has recently been given to a plan to hold a public hearing as early as August–September and to finalize and promulgate the plan within the year. As rail project requests from local governments nationwide have poured in, the review period has lengthened.
Local governments across the country have requested that about 300 rail projects be included in the 5th National Rail Network Plan, with a total project cost reportedly around 600 trillion won. In contrast, the scale of new projects that can actually be included is limited, making selective inclusion unavoidable. An official at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said, "The scale of projects proposed by local governments is so large and the number of projects reaches into the hundreds that we are reviewing the feasibility of each line," adding, "Since this plan is established every five years, our goal is to promulgate it within this year."