Construction The first section of the line (Mukho Port–Dogye) was opened by the privately owned
Samcheok Railway on 31 July 1940. The line was named
Cheoram Line, which ran from
Mukho, a port on Korea's east coast that became part of
Donghae in 1980, to Cheoram in the
Taebaek Mountains, to develop three coal fields. Between Simpo-ri and Tong-ri stations, the great height difference was scaled by a steep double-track railway. Another section of the future Yeongdong Line was first projected as a
branch line from Yeongju to Chunyang for the exploitation of the forest areas and mines in the area, the Yeongchun Line. and work began that year with local forced labourers. One new line under the plan was the long Yeongam Line from Yeongju to Cheoram, which included and extended the Yeongchun Line alignment planned by the Chosen Railway to link up the Cheoram Line with the rest of the network. Following the 1961 coup, the
Supreme Council for National Reconstruction started South Korea's
first five-year plan, which included a construction program to complete the railway network, to foster economic growth. A number of branches were built from the line, among them the long Hwangji Branchline from Baeksan to Hwangji (today
Taebaek), which opened on December 20, 1962, The steep descent from Dongbaeksan to Dogye contains
switchbacks, which hinder smooth traffic. In addition, a 1996 investigation found that the section is endangered by soil subsistence and the ageing of tunnels. To solve these problems, Korail built a new alignment between the two stations with a budget of 510.322 billion won. The main part of the section is the Solan Tunnel, which includes a
spiral. The tunnel was opened on 27 June 2012. At the time of thawing relations between South and North Korea, when the cross-border section of the
Donghae Bukbu Line was reopened in 2007, the South Korean government considered the construction of a railway for freight traffic all along the east coast to the North Korean border. This line would incorporate the Donghae–Gangneung section of the Yeongdong Line and the Samcheok branch, and connect to newly built lines at Samcheok and Gangneung. Three years later, the project re-surfaced as a domestic project. On September 1, 2010, the South Korean government announced a strategic plan to reduce travel times from Seoul to 95% of the country to under 2 hours by 2020. Under the plan, the east coast line, including the section of the Yeongdong Line from Donghae to Gangneung and the Samcheok Line, would be upgraded for , and may see
KTX service. ==Operation==