New subway line for Daegu line (4&5)

I heard some news about Daegu's proposed new subway lines the other day, but I couldn't find any recent news in English. So here's some info about the proposals taken from a Korean wiki.


The blue line is a proposed circle around the city. It has been talked about for some time, but with no definite plan. It might be called line 4.

Because line three has a low demand and is not very profitable, there have been suggestions that the circular line might be modified or abandoned all together. Daegu is not a fast growing city, and the main reason for a subway line might be to reduce pollution, rather than easy congestion. It also has a problem with the army base in the South. Discussions have suggested that it might go under the base via a tunnel, but nothing is confirmed.

The other line, which could be called line 5 or more likely the Exco line.

"It will be a total length of 12.4km that connects Suseong-gu Sports Stadium Station (Line 3) to Isiapolis . A total of 13 stops are scheduled."

A newspaper article recently suggested that this line could become a possibility in the near future, with a decision being made in the new year. The reason for the development is quoted as being about economic stimulation via investment in infrastructure:

"Nationwide metropolitan governments are jumping into expanding the urban railway. The purpose is to invigorate the local economy through social overhead capital (SOC) projects and to find new growth engines by expanding the urban railway network."

The vehicle design would probably be AGV light rail (like the Busan Gimhae line) or tram (see below), though there are also proposals for extending the monorail. Neither project will likely be designed as a full underground subway, in the style of line 1 or 2.

It's likely that AGV was chosen in order to test the water, being a relatively cheap alternative to underground rail, or the monorail.

"Daegu City is planning to start construction by 2022 and finish construction by 2023 after investing 701.7 billion won in total project cost."

Some sources I read quoted the project starting in 2022 and taking ten years to complete... so it would seem to depend on the choice of vehicle. Line 3 took a couple of years for construction.

There's also a plan, to be evaluated in 2019 and put in to action in 2022, for an industrial railroad link and an extension to the existing green subway line. 

This would be a traditional train line, not a subway or tram. It would run from West Daegu out past The Arc and down to the industrial areas and Daegu Technopolis.

It's not impossible that the EXCO line may be ready within the next few years, but the circle line remains a paper project for now.

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You can read the wiki for yourself using google translate (blue and purple lines).

A note about the sources used:
WoodWiki (나무위키) is not an encyclopedia and may contain unverified, biased, or misleading statements.

The wiki is a compilation of facts and conjecture about the plans in the pipeline. Take it with a pinch of salt.

Here's a news article which matches some of the info from the wiki though.
(BTW Google translate always mistranslates EXCO as X-ray). And here's an article which suggests that the city has decided to adopt trams as the vehicle instead of AGV.

A  tram would run on the roads directly, with an overhead cable or something built in to the street. Construction costs per KM are projected as follows:

Underground rail: 120bn won per KM
Monorail: 60bn won per KM
Tram: 20bn won per KM

So it's easy to see why trams would be an attractive alternative to the other systems.
Also: 

The tram emits less pollutants and is more environmentally friendly and energy efficient. 

 

However, trams have less capacity than subways, and can transport fewer passengers per day. There's a trade off between construction costs and operating capacity, as fewer passengers mean less impact on traffic and less revenue from fares.