Japanese colonialists completed a single track railway in 1905, connecting 한양 Hanyang, the capital of 조선 Joseon dynasty and 부산 Busan, the largest port city on the peninsula. Hanyang is the previous name of 서울 Seoul. The railway had many curved sections so steam locomotives couldn't run fast and it took about 30 hours from Seoul to Busan. Five months later, steam express locomotives were introduced to shorten the running time, which was cut down to 11 hours.
Japanese imperialists opened a war against China in 1937, needed a railway to transport war materials faster so that they completed the double track railway later, completely separated from the first one. The second railway was a modernized one whose track was more straight.
The old first railway had been abandoned since the new one was opened to traffic. Since then, many sections of the railroad have disappeared due to urban and rural development, or new roads were built on the site of the old railway. Some tunnel on the railway is used for persimmon wine cellar whose name is wine tunnel 와인 터널, located near the pass between 청도 Cheongdo and 경산 Gyeongsan. Some section of the railroad with two tunnels, located near 밀양 Miryang, was paved and used as a car road. The single track railway is not wide enough for two cars to pass, so one of two cars heading in the other direction should wait at the tunnel entrance while the other one passes through it.
