Lee pledges 'transportation revolution' for Gyeonggi residents

Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung said Monday he will push for a "transportation revolution" to reduce commute times in the Seoul metropolitan area to less than 30 minutes by investing heavily in high-speed trains.

Lee of the Democratic Party (DP) said he will pay particular attention to improving the job-housing proximity for residents of Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds Seoul, by expanding the construction of Great Train Express (GTX) commuter rail networks, subways and expressways.

Lee announced his election pledges for Gyeonggi Province in a news conference in Yongin, 50 kilometers south of Seoul.

The DP candidate said he will push for the "GTX Plus" project, in which the speed of the envisioned GTX Lines A, B and C connecting Gyeonggi and Seoul is increased and new routes are added to the three lines.

For instance, the southern end point of GTX A, which will connect Paju and Dongtan, both in Gyeonggi, via Seoul, will be extended to reach Pyeongtaek, Lee said. GTX C will also be extended to Pyeongtaek and Dongducheon in the north.

In addition, Lee said he will push to build three new GTX lines throughout the province to link Gimpo to Hanam via southern Seoul (D line), Incheon and Pocheon via Seoul (E line), and Paju and Yeoju (F line).

Lee floated the ideas of extending Seoul's subway lines 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 to more Gyeonggi areas, constructing a new airport in Suwon, 50 km south of Seoul, and speeding up the construction of the Capital Region Second Ring Expressway.

The candidate also said he will ease apartment reconstruction regulations for Gyeonggi's first-generation new towns, such as Bundang, Sanbon, Ilsan, Jungdong and Pyeongchon.

"Gyeonggi accounting for a quarter of South Korea's population is a microcosm of the nation and the center of the Korean economy. I will surely achieve a great transformation of the province," said Lee, who previously served as Gyeonggi governor. (Yonhap)