Gwangmyeong Station#Operation

"Gwangmyeong station" is the former name of Gwangmyeongsageori station on Line 7 of the Seoul Subway and is also the name of a station on Line 2 of the Pyongyang Metro.

The location of Gwangmyeong station was finalised on October 14, 1994, though construction did not begin until December 1999. The planned name of Namseoul station (literally meaning South Seoul station) was changed to Gwangmyeong station on August 28, 2000, and the station building was completed on March 27, 2004.

Construction cost was 406.8 billion won.

The station opened with the start of KTX service on April 1, 2004.{{cite web |title=Introduction of KTX |url=http://info.korail.com/2007/eng/ein/ein01000/w_ein01100.jsp |publisher=Korail |access-date=2010-11-01}}

After opening in April 2004, Gwangmyeong station was used by only an average 4,521 passengers a day. However, ridership growth was one of the fastest among KTX stations, and the daily number of KTX passengers arriving or departing at the station reached 14,608 in 2008, surpassing Yongsan station, the Seoul terminus of Honam KTX services. In the first five years of service, until the end of February 2009, Gwangmyeong Station saw a total of 22,173,792 passenger boardings, again surpassing Yongsan Station.{{cite web |url=http://www.railsafety.or.kr/web/FileDownload.do?file=/por/jsp/admin/board/PORAdminBoardR.jsp/KTX_%EA%B0%9C%ED%86%B5_5%EC%A3%BC%EB%85%84_%ED%94%84%EB%A0%88%EC%8A%A4%ED%82%B7.hwp |title=KTX 개통 5주년 보도자료 |language=ko |date=2009-04-01 |publisher=Rail Safety Information System |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722141402/http://www.railsafety.or.kr/web/FileDownload.do?file=%2Fpor%2Fjsp%2Fadmin%2Fboard%2FPORAdminBoardR.jsp%2FKTX_%EA%B0%9C%ED%86%B5_5%EC%A3%BC%EB%85%84_%ED%94%84%EB%A0%88%EC%8A%A4%ED%82%B7.hwp |archive-date=2011-07-22 |access-date=2010-11-13 |url-status=dead }}

In passenger surveys conducted in the first months after the launch of KTX service, the problem mentioned most often was the lack of adequate local access for intermediate stations, especially the lack of a subway connection to the two new stations Gwangmyeong and Cheonan-Asan.{{cite journal |last1=D. Suh |first1=Sunduck |last2=Yang |first2=Keun-Yul |last3=Lee |first3=Jae-Hoon |last4=Ahn |first4=Byung-Min |last5=Kim |first5=Jeong Hyun |title=EFFECTS OF THE KOREAN TRAIN EXPRESS (KTX) OPERATION ON THE NATIONAL TRANSPORT SYSTEM |journal=Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies |volume=5 |pages=175–189 |year=2005 |url=http://www.easts.info/on-line/proceedings_05/175.pdf |access-date=2010-08-27}} Gwangmyeong station was linked to Seoul Subway Line 1 by a shuttle service from Yongsan on December 15, 2006. However, the shuttle uses the same tracks as the KTX trains, resulting in a schedule with long waiting times between the arrival of KTX and subway trains, thus the service had little impact.{{cite web |url=http://article.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.asp?ctg=12&Total_ID=3215610 |title=한 칸 승객 2명 … 공기만 싣고 달린다 |date=2008-07-07 |publisher=JoongAng Ilbo |access-date=2010-10-29 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713120537/http://article.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.asp?ctg=12&Total_ID=3215610 |archive-date=2011-07-13 }} A 2008 survey of KTX passengers arriving or departing at Gwangmyeong station found that 57% used private cars, 11% took a taxi, 28% took a bus, and only 4% took the subway train.{{cite web |url=http://www.ekgib.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=439219 |title=KTX, 영등포역 등 정차… "정부에 속았다" 광명시 부글부글 |language=ko |date=2010-10-27 |publisher=Gyeonggi Ilbo |access-date=2010-11-13 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

When an additional KTX stop was proposed in 2004 at nearby Yeongdeungpo station, some locals living around Gwangmyeong station feared that Korail would kill Gwangmyeong station by migrating all services to the new station, and formed an action group against the plan.{{cite web |script-title=ko:광명역은 이렇게 죽으라고? |language=ko |url=http://www.joygm.com/news/read.php?idxno=5392 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713121618/http://www.joygm.com/news/read.php?idxno=5392 |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 13, 2011 |date=2010-10-08 |publisher=Pride of Gwang Myeong |access-date=2010-11-13 }} The action group gathered 880,000 signatures, forcing the government to drop the plans in late 2005. When Yeongdeungpo station was made a KTX stop for new services via Suwon starting with November 1, 2010, protests resumed.

Gwangmyeong station is a glass structure surrounded by large car parking spaces. Outside of Exit 1 is a large Costco, and in the same direction one can also access a nearby CJ CGV cinema, the Chung-Ang University Gwangmyeong Hospital, LOTTE Mall Gwangmyeong and the adjacent IKEA Gwangmyeong, the first IKEA store in the Korean Peninsula and second-largest in the world. Standing on a plot of land measuring {{convert|264,131|m2|ft2}}, the interior of the {{convert|48,184|m2|ft2}} building is open, with the tracks, which approach the station from both directions through cuttings, sunken below the main concourse, yet visible to passengers waiting at ground level. There are two stories above ground level and two below. The building measures {{convert|297|x|148|m|ft}} in terms of internal available space. Originally meant to be the terminus for KTX lines,{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} the size of the station was constructed accordingly. As the terminus changed to Seoul and Yongsan, the large difference between capacity and actual use the station and most prominently due to the size of the station, it has earned the nickname Gwangmyeong Airport by rail enthusiasts.

Gwangmyeong station is served by KTX trains on both the Gyeongbu and Honam KTX services.{{cite web |url=http://info.korail.com/2007/download/sta/1_korail_total_train_time_101101.xls |title=KTX Time Table 2010.11.01 |language=ko |publisher=Korail |access-date=2010-10-31}} Shuttle trains run every 40 min-1 hour to Yeongdeungpo, joining the Gyeongbu Line section of Line 1 at Siheung station in Seoul. Gwangmyeong station is not connected directly to other subway stations in the city of Gwangmyeong, namely Cheolsan and Gwangmyeongsageori, so it is necessary to change trains at Gasan Digital Complex station in Seoul to travel there, or just take one of the many buses traveling to the station.

File:Two KTX trains and two metro trains in Gwangmyeong Station.JPG|Inside the Gwangmyeong station

File:Korail-P144-1-Gwangmyeong-station-platform-20191024-120052.jpg|Station platform (Line 1)

• Transportation in South Korea

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Gwangmyeong Station}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071219014214/http://ktx.gm.go.kr/ Gwangmyeong Station (Korean)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071006013022/http://ktx.korail.go.kr/eng/index.html Korea Train eXpress]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071107025448/http://ktx.korail.go.kr/eng/flash/map.swf Route Map]
• {{in lang|ko}} [http://www.letskorail.com/ebizprd/stationMainView.do?stationSeq=10281742&searchCondition=main1 Station information] from Korail

{{Seoul Metropolitan Subway stations|line1=yes}}

{{KTX lines and services}}

Category:Korea Train Express stations

Category:Railway stations in Gyeonggi Province

Category:Seoul Metropolitan Subway stations

Category:Metro stations in Gwangmyeong

Category:Railway stations in South Korea opened in 2004