The construction of the first railway of Korea, Gyeongin(Seoul-Incheon) railway line started by J. R. Morse, an American in 1897, but the construction of the line was completed by Japanese. It was a private railway, and its fundamental goal to gain p...
The construction of the first railway of Korea, Gyeongin(Seoul-Incheon) railway line started by J. R. Morse, an American in 1897, but the construction of the line was completed by Japanese. It was a private railway, and its fundamental goal to gain profit, so it can be said that the expensive fare of Gyeongin line seemed to be a little reasonable even though it surpassed the limit of the public fee.
In 1903, Gyeongin railway was merged into 'the Gyeongbu railway company,' and it belonged to the Japanese public railways in 1906. 'The Korean Empire' collapsed in 1910, but the Japanese public railways already started its operation before 1910.
From the public railway ownership to the collapse of the Japanese Empire there were lots of changes in the railway business environment.
Before the emancipation, the development of Korean railways was based upon the Japanese political and military policies of the continent invasion. Thus, the railway fee was estimated without considering economic theories and circumstances.
In conclusion, Japan carried out two railway policies in Korea, and the first one is the Aritomo Yamagata's policy concerning 'the railway running through'. This policy put emphasis on the bridge function of 'Gyeongbu·Gyeongui railway connecting Japan with Manchu.
Because Japan regarded Russia as a potential enemy even after the victory of Russia-Japanese Wars, Japanese main policy was to protect its privileges in Korea and Manchu from Russia's invasion.
'Yamagata' said that an urgent priority is to protect Japanese constructions of railways from Russia by stationing troops in Korea and getting a hold of railways. The Yamagata's 'the railway running through' policy had a decisive effect on the Japanese railway policy of Korea.
The second railway policy is to maintain a high degree of transportation capacity. It means that 'the railway running through', that is, 'Gyeongbu·Gyeongui' railway could fulfil a function as a 'logistics main railway' in time of emergency. In order to make that possible, above two railways should have a high degree of transportation capacity as usual. So Japan made the two railways financially independent by performing the absorbing-freight policy.
After gaining full control of Korea, Japan maintained the railway transportation system consistent. Japan also aligned the transportation system of connecting the Korea railways with Manchu railways. In 1915 Japan began to connect Korea passenger and freight transportations with China railways. Both in name and reality 'Gyeongbu·Gyeongui' railway could be main railways of Asia continent.
Gyeongbu·Gyeongui railways could be connected to Japanese railways through the transportation by sea between Busan and Shimonoseki. Therefore, Gyeongbu·Gyeongui railway could become the most safe and fast one among the transportations by land and sea connecting the Japan~Korea~Manchu~China continents. After all, Gyeongbu·Gyeongui railways served the role of connecting the Korean Peninsula and Asia continent as efficiently as possible from the time and space point of view.
In the above two frames, we could understand the Japanese railway fee policy. One time the fee was so expensive to be blamed for making excessive profits, but the other time the fee was too cheap and had lots of unreasonable discount.