New Entrance at Hanyang University Station on the Sinansan Line to aid ERICA’s future growth

The granting of ERICA’s long-awaited wish

It was officially announced that a new exit for Hanyang University Station on the Sinansan Line, which is to be opened in 2025, would be added to the ERICA Campus, which is expected to reduce the time that students, faculty, staff members, and visitors using the line by around 17 minutes (The Korea Transport Institute). Ho-shik Won, the director of Campus Innovation Park, proudly said, “If we weren’t successful in having an additional exit installed within the campus, our students and staff members would have had to cross the 8-lane road twice to use the exit near the lake park, located diagonally across from the school. Adding an exit within the campus will not only help significantly boost convenience, but also contribute toward the growth of ERICA because the Campus Innovation Park has become part of the so-called Station Influence Area.”

The installation of a new entrance within ERICA Campus has come after years of hard work and dedication, which is why the Director Ho-shik Won expressed his gratitude toward the relevant stakeholders at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Ansan City, professors and advisors within and outside the campus, and presidents, alumni, and students of Hanyang University, saying that it was the result of their hard work and commitment. In fact, construction of Hanyang University Station on the Sinansan Line has been a long-awaited dream for ERICA. It was announced in 2010 that the Sinansan Project, which connects Yeouido in Seoul to Jungang Station in Ansan, will take place along with the Shinbundang Line Project, both part of the 2003 national railroad project, but the construction was put on hold due to national budget issues.

Eager to get the project started, ERICA hosted a policy forum that included railway experts, officials from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and members of the National Assembly. Subsequently, a taskforce team was established that consisted of Ansan City officials and local members of the National Assembly. ERICA also spent approximately 3 years persuading the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Korea National Railway through multiple rounds of meetings that the Sinansan Line should be extended. As a result, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that that the Sinansan Line would be extended from Jungang Station to Lake Station and Hanyang University Station from August 2015. However, Nextrain, the company selected as the operator of the project, decided to only install an entrance toward the Ansan Lake Park due to cost reasons. The project to extend the Sinansan Line was finally resumed after years of hard work, but the entrance was to be located so far from the campus that the name, Hanyang University Station, was only nominal.

Since then, ERICA has spent another 7 years sparing no effort to open an exit within the campus. The biggest obstacle was installing an extra exit which meant that ERICA had to foot the bill in accordance with the Causer’s Liability clause. ERICA continued to make requests to the City of Ansan to fund the project based on the reasoning that a subway exit qualifies as a public good. Fortunately, Ansan City agreed to cover all the expenses as part of the overall scheme to strengthen mutual cooperation between the city and the university. In return, ERICA agreed to contribute the land on which the entrance is installed to Ansan City as well as the road in front of KITECH and to actively support the establishment of test beds for intelligent robots led by Ansan City.

Construction of a new entrance at Hanyang University Station, Sinansan Line

Goal to complete construction of Hanyang University Station on the Sinansan Line by 2025

Plans to develop youth housing near the entrance

“The reason we were able to successfully persuade the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Korea National Railway, Nextrain, and Ansan City was because we never gave up and kept pushing forward. In particular, using solid justification by requesting the Korea Transport Institute to conduct validation on the extra entrance was what helped ERICA effectively persuade Ansan City and the local council.”

Installation of a new entrance for Hanyang University Station on the Sinansan Line within ERICA Campus is expected to significantly improve the convenience of the 11,000 students commuting every day. The first step of the construction will take users from ERICA to Yeouido in just 25 minutes, and the second step, which will connect the all the way to Seoul Station, will take them there in 40 minutes once finished. In addition, walking from the newly installed entrance to the campus will take only 10 minutes. The enhanced accessibility is expected to strengthen ERICA’s external competitiveness and help secure more admissions applications from aspiring high school students. Furthermore, the new entrance will make life easier for those working for Gyeonggi Technopark, Korea Testing Laboratory, Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute, KITECH, and LG Innotek, all institutes that belong to the industry-university cooperation cluster. According to the Korea Transport Institute, there will be more non-Hanyang University users (80.5%) of the new entrance than Hanyang University students (19.5%).

The Director Ho-shik Won said, “We expect that appropriate utilization of the land near the station will contribute to ERICA’s securing of finances and positive mid-to-long term results. This project will have a high impact on the future of ERICA, together with the Campus Innovation Park Project.”
The entrance to be newly added will have a high-speed elevator that connects from 70m below the ground, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that the upper part of the entrance and the land nearby will be used to construct a building, which will supply around 240 rental housing units. Supplying these housing units at more affordable prices to not only students of Hanyang University, but also those working in the industrial complex nearby is expected to attract leading companies and professionals.

Furthermore, ERICA looks forward to seeing the new entrance contributing to the vitalization of Campus Innovation Park. ERICA, which was selected as the only leading university in the metropolitan area in 2019, is currently developing Campus Innovation Park or the Urban High-Tech Industrial Complex, that is 184,130㎡ (56,000 pyeong) on the remaining land in the university. The first step will be to build anchor facilities including Kakao’s Data Center, research labs of large conglomerates, research labs to help small and medium sized companies that belong to the Banwol Industrial Complex convert to high-tech businesses, Ansan City’s Startup Incubating Center, and the industry-university research cooperation facilities across 78,579㎡ (24,000 py.) The second step to construct the additional entrance of Hanyang University Station on the Sinansan Line on a total area of 105,600㎡ (32,00 pyeong) is expected to take place in 2024. The area will be used to build a cluster for innovation including university hospitals, and pharmaceutical and bio-pharma manufacturers, based on cooperation with Ansan City.

The future of ERICA, a university that continues to grower

The Director Won said, “If everything goes well, the second step of the Campus Innovation Park Project will be finished by the time Hanyang Station on the Sinansan Line opens.”
A sustainable industrial cooperation ecosystem that supports research and development cooperation with ERICA and helps students either find jobs or start their own business is expected to be created once the Campus Innovation Park, which will attract 1,000 companies that will create approximately 10,000 jobs, makes its grand appearance.

“We will continue to actively work closely with Ansan City, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and Nextrain so that the installation of the new entrance goes smoothly as planned. Furthermore, we will spare no effort to ensure the successful construction of the Urban High-Tech Industrial Complex, which will become the center of industry-university cooperation in Korea alongside Campus Innovation Park.”

The construction of the entrance is leading to enhanced competitiveness of the Campus Innovation Park and ERICA as a whole, as well as the potential advancement of the area and industry. It is expected that that Erica will grow more actively with the installation of the new entrance of Hanyang University Station, considering the fact that development often goes hand in hand with transportation infrastructure.”

Project for Adding a New Exit at Hanyang University Station, Sinansan Line

The Sinansan Line Project aims to build a 44.9㎞ long commuter rail line that will link Ansan (Hanyang University) to Gwangmyeong Station to Yeouido by 2025. Once opened, the rail line will reduce the time it takes to go from Ansan to Yeouido from an hour to 25 minutes. In accordance with the agreement, Ansan City will bear the cost of the project and support the handling of civil complaints while Nextrain will be responsible for the design and construction of the new exit, as well as maintenance and operation. In addition, Korea National Railway will conduct verification of construction of the facilities and manage the project, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport will oversee the design of the building-type entrance. Moreover, Hanyang University, Ansan City, and Nextrain will work closely together and review plans for supplying housing by utilizing the space above the building-type entrance and land near the station to reduce the housing and transport burden of Students and recent graduates who have just started their careers.