HI SEOUL!

Footage of the flooding in Gwahwamun - Tuesday

Incredible photo taken from plane of the localised rain

Stormy Seoul

Not a great start to the Chuseok holiday here. Rain started late last night and I was woken at around 9am to the sound of extremely heavy rain on the roof. This rain continued the entire day getting heavier and heavier. Up to nearly 290mm fell in some places causing surface and even severe flooding in many places. West and North West Seoul took the brunt of it with whole carparks being turned into lakes.

Cheonggye Stream - The footpath along the stream completely

submerged, it became a raging river surging through the centre of Seoul

This also affected a couple of the Seoul Metro lines as a result. All service was suspended between Guro and Incheon on Line No. 1 and Line No. 4 was also affected, services being suspended between Seoul Station and Sadang. Line No. 2 was unable to stop at Hongdae Univ. Station due to flooding and Gwanghwamun didn't look much better off either.

Oryu-dong Station, Seoul - Line No. 1

This station apparently has a history of flooding easily.

Hongdae and Gwanghwamun Stations became waterfalls.

Outside Hongdae University Station - Passengers unable to get on or off here

Historic New Lynn Photos - Peter Trevor

These photos do not belong to me. They were uploaded to NZLocos by Peter Trevor on July 17th. They do not appear to exist anymore so I cannot link to them. I hope this is okay Peter and if it is not please post on NZLocos to let me know.

Rear of New Lynn Depot - 19th Nov 1969

New Lynn Interchange - 19th July 1982

The Last Station

Today me and my wife took a trip to the border between North and South Korea.

(Click photos for full size) - I've noticed the first few don't work but the bottom ones do.

We took the new regular passenger service to Munsan which opened at the end of last year. operates every hour and is now integrated into the rest of Seoul's subway network.

The trip took about an hour and it was nice to travel up a line I had never been on before. When we arrived we battled in line for a ticket to catch the special shuttle train which travels to the few final stations on the line. Originally we had planned to simply go to the park at Imjin River but on seeing how cheap tours of the DMZ were, we couldn't resist. So we got back on the train.

Before boarding we were frisked and sent under a metal detector. Quite bizarre before boarding a very old commuter train.

It started to sink in that we were quite close to the border when we started seeing road signs for Pyeongyang. We crossed the Imjin river which still has the remains of the original bridge, destroyed in the war. It's the first real damage from the war that I've seen which has been preserved and it felt quite eerie.

We reached Dorasan Station, the final stop on the line before it goes into North Korea. We were now in a restricted area, off limits to the public. (Not the station itself, but outside the station.)

Looking toward the border.

The station looks ridiculously new and unused. Everything is set up so once relations between the two countries improve, things can get moving right away. Trains were crossing the border last year when relations were better but I don't think they would be at the moment.

The next stop in obviously not Pyeongyang but I guess it is a symbol of how close the capital is to here, that being 205km away.

Inside the station, the gate which takes you underground to the other side of the tracks for North bound trains.

The hanging signs above shows the real next station is Gaeseong.

The building is huge and I was very nervous taking this photo, not knowing what was okay and what was off limits. (Photoshop did something weird when I took myself out of the photo.)

Oh and here's a picture of North Korea from the mountain. Pity it was such a hazy day :(

KTX 2 - KTX San Cheon

As of February 13, 2010 the new KTX San Cheon (Previously called the KTXII) have started appearing in stations around the country. I have yet to ride the new high speed trains but I got to go aboard a model version at the Korail Museum. It should boast faster speeds and have more room between seats for a start. You could also sit at the controls and figuring this the closest I'll ever get to the real ones, I took some snaps.

Click to see a larger version.