Rajin station


Rajin station is a railway station in Rajin-guyŏk, Rasŏn Special City, North Korea. It is the junction point and terminus of both the Hambuk and P'yŏngra lines of the Korean State Railway. It is also the starting point of a freight-only branchline to Rajin Port station.

History

In 1935, the port at Rajin was opened as an alternative to Unggi ; at the same time, on 1 November 1935 the South Manchuria Railway opened the Ungra Line to connect Unggi to Rajin. An express train named "Asahi" from Xinjing, Manchukuo to Rajin was put into service in 1936 to connect to the ferry to Japan. After the end of the Korean War the Ungra Line was combined with several others to create the Hambuk Line as it is today.
The construction of the Korean-Russian Friendship Bridge across the Tumen River, along with the Hongŭi Line from Tumangang to Hongŭi on the Hambuk Line in 1959 created a direct rail connection between North Korea and the Soviet Union; this, along with the extension in 1965 of the P'yŏngra Line to Rajin, meeting up with the terminus of the Hambuk Line. This turned Rajin station into one of the most important stations on the entirety of the North Korean rail network, handling vast amounts of freight traffic to and from the Soviet Union and the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe.
In 2008 work was begun to convert the line from the DPRK-Russia border to the port at Rajin to dual gauge, including the entirety of the Hongŭi Line and the Hongŭi-Rajin section of the Hambuk Line.

Services

Freight

Though the amount of import-export traffic to Russia has dropped significantly since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a significant amount of freight traffic still moves through Rajin station to and from Russia. Since the completion of the modernisation of the line from the DPRK-Russia border in 1993, this traffic is expected to increase once again.

Passenger

Two pairs of passenger express trains are known to stop at Rajin station:
There is also a long-distance train between Kalma and Rajin that runs via the Hambuk Line through Ch'ŏngjin and Hoeryŏng, as well as a commuter trains 623/624 that operate between Rajin and Sŏnbong;