This is great news for all the soldiers living on Camp Casey:
Getting to Seoul became a lot easier in the past few months for many Area I soldiers.
Unable to drive their own vehicles, soldiers at Dongducheon bases were once reliant on buses to Yongsan Garrison or had to transfer from trains or buses to Uijeongbu before finding the subway.
And farther south at Camp Red Cloud, servicemembers no longer have to take an expensive taxi ride or long bus trip through downtown Uijeongbu traffic to get to the station.
The Seoul Metro system’s Number One line extension opened in December and now allows servicemembers to get to popular destinations like Itaewon for as little as 1,100 won, or about $1.20, each way.
In the past soldiers at Camp Casey had to take a train from usually Dongan Station outside Gate 2 that left once an hour to reach Uijongbu. The train cost about $2 to get to Uijongbu on. At Uijongbu Station you had to transfer over to the subway and buy another ticket to get to Itaewon which cost about $1.50. With the completion of the subway line to Dongducheon soldiers will save time and money whenever they travel to Seoul which I think is great.Â
The subway expansion has actually been under construction for about the past 10 years. Every time I came back to Korea I always found it interesting to watch first hand the slow, but steady progress of the subway expansion between Uijongbu and Dongducheon. What was additionally interesting was the fact that large portions of Dongducheon including parts of the ville in front of Camp Casey, had to be knocked down to make way for the subway. This map should give you an idea of how many buildings were impacted by the subway expansion:
You can see the subway line runs right through the center of the city. This picture should give you an idea of how densely populated Dongducheon is:
During the whole time homes and businesses were being knocked down to make way for the subway expansion not once did I see or hear of any civic groups protesting the forced relocation of these homes and businesses. However, when less people are forced to move due to the Camp Humphreys expansion in Pyeongtaek suddenly all these civic groups appear demanding that the government stop the forced relocation of the farmers in the Daechu-ri village who don’t want to move.Â
Having watched people in forced to move due to a subway expansion I have always considered the protesters outside Camp Humphreys total hypocrites. People in Korea aren’t just forced to move to make way for subways either. I have seen people forced to relocated due to highways and new shopping centers as well and not once did I see or hear of these civic groups outside of Camp Humphreys protesting them. The truth is that the Camp Humphreys protester don’t care about the fact that people are forced to move due to imminent domain because if they did there are a whole lot of bigger imminent cases out there than Camp Humphreys. Their whole motivation is pushing their anti-US agenda and the farmers of Daechu-ri are just pawns in their game to bash USFK.Â
So don’t expect any protesters for the opening of this subway line, but don’t expect them to go away outside Camp Humphreys.Â
You can read more over at Lost Nomad.
Popularity: 4%
12:38 pm on February 23rd, 2007 1
I apologize for this nitpick:
Recommend ‘eminent’ vice ‘imminent’ domain.
12:29 am on February 24th, 2007 2
Sounds great - it impresses me how much things have changed since I left Camp Casey in 1980 - back then GI’s could not bring POV’s to ROK, or at least not to Camp Casey. To get to Seoul, you had to take a bus, which was about a 2-hour ride with all of the stops.
10:39 am on February 24th, 2007 3
“During the whole time homes and businesses were being knocked down to make way for the subway expansion not once did I see or hear of any civic groups protesting the forced relocation of these homes and businesses.”
Having moved from Sears to Casey after you left I would have thought the same thing about the relocation of businesses and homes but,the second the line was finished so were almost all the businesses in exactly the same locations. Homeboyz EZ pawn right on the corner teh same as before.
11:33 am on February 24th, 2007 4
Does MG Coggin have the MP’s/CP’s patrolling the station with breathalyzers yet?
3:05 pm on February 24th, 2007 5
GI, I remember when my father took me up to Uijongbu in brand new Subway line#1 back in 1974 when it opened from Seoulyok. I can not believe it got extened to TDC. Maybe ROKs want light commuter rail system all the way to KIC. So in next KPA invasion, those poor KPA soldiers can ride the subway all the way to Seoul without getting off the Seoul Metro subway system.
7:16 pm on February 24th, 2007 6
Kormatt,
I’ll be back in Korea for a short while this summer, I look forward to taking the new line up to Camp Casey and seeing the new and improved Homeboyz EZ pawn. Hopefully Mr. Kim’s coin shop is back to because I need to get some coins made while I’m there.
8:32 pm on February 24th, 2007 7
GI Korea,
I agree that most of the protesters near Camp Humphreys are probably more interested in protesting against the US military than saving the livelihood of poor farmers.
(I do feel sorry for the old farmers, however, who are being displaced from long-term family land so that some shitbag “business association” member can play a discount game of golf).
I’m not sure about the subway situation but I’m guessing that when your building is torn down to build a subway, it means you have a subway stop nearby which raises the value of your land. Further, you are able to upgrade your old building into a new building with some good ol’ gub’ment compensation money.
I purchased a building on a main road that will be widened within the next 10 years. If it happens on my side of the road, I will be paid THREE times the value of the property I lose. In theory, this will pay for the construction of a nice new 5-story building which will go on the remaining property (which will go up in value as a commercial property on a wider road).
As a property owner, I’m not seeing anything to protest here… and I don’t expect demonstrations in the streets when everyone gets rich over “road expansion”. I wish they would do it tomorrow.
As for the Humphreys protesters, there is a tendency (due to a somewhat narrow perspective) for Westerners in Korea to mistake a few hundred loud demonstrators as representative of 47 million other Koreans who have no strong negative feelings about the United States military being in Korea.
J!
11:08 am on February 25th, 2007 8
GI,
Let me know when you will be back and I can run you through your old unit. I will be here awhile. Not sure if it’s the same coin shop but there are a couple.
1:43 pm on February 25th, 2007 9
Kormat,
Thanks, shoot me an email to contact you with.
8:25 pm on February 27th, 2007 10
simo3870@gmail.com
8:55 pm on July 31st, 2007 11
[...] installation and transportation to and from the post continues to improve, especially with the opening of the new subway station in Dongducheon. So if you get stationed in the Camp Casey area it is not the end of the world and [...]
11:38 am on August 14th, 2007 12
[...] seen much recent change. A large portion of the ville was knocked down to make way for the new subway line that runs through Dongducheon [...]
10:21 pm on December 14th, 2007 13
1:43 am on June 21st, 2008 14
3:45 pm on November 23rd, 2008 15