May 24th - Seoul-searching in linear parks
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 24 May 2024
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today I'm looking at linear parks – effectively, old road or rail lines that are now green vectors for hikers and bikers. Some, like my location today, are in the middle of busy cities: I am in Seoul, South Korea, on a 1970s flyover that was threatened with demolition yet rescued and turned into a leafy, elevated walkway above the tumult of the city. New York has a similar option, the High Line, which has taken over a former elevated freight line in Manhattan.
Two rail links now turned into cycle/walkways that I particularly like: Singapore's Rail Trail and the Great Western Greenway between Westport, Co Mayo and Achill Island in the west of Ireland.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder. |
| 0:09.0 | It's Friday the 24th of May and I'm right in the middle of a very, very busy highway, |
| 0:17.0 | four lanes in Seoul, South Korea. It's the rush hour as you can probably hear. |
| 0:23.6 | But I'm going in search of some peace and quiet and tranquility. The odd thing is that I'm actually |
| 0:31.8 | walking along what used to be an old flyover. |
| 0:41.6 | This was built in the 1970s. |
| 0:45.6 | It extends over the railway lines just north of Seoul's big railway station. |
| 0:51.0 | And they were going to knock it down |
| 0:53.2 | because in 2007 it was closed as being not sufficiently |
| 0:58.0 | robust but there was a local campaign and they saved it and turned it into Seoul 7017. That is an interesting name but it's an even more interesting place because |
| 1:18.3 | it's just a wash. With greenery they've planted trees from across Korea. They have made it a place where you can walk, you can just enjoy the |
| 1:32.8 | amazing views across about 20 lanes of traffic and of course the railway line and |
| 1:40.5 | it's a place that you are lifted up above the busy city streets. It's not alone in New York. |
| 1:49.7 | The high line is a highlight of many people's visits. This again was actually an old freight railway line. |
| 1:58.6 | They were going to knock it down and then people said we can do something much more imaginative with this. |
| 2:04.2 | And that's what they did. |
| 2:05.6 | It's about a mile and a half long. |
| 2:08.0 | And the southwestern side of Manhattan |
| 2:11.2 | and well worth having a look at it. |
| 2:14.0 | They've also got something called the Moynihan Connector, |
| 2:16.9 | which means that there's an extra |
| 2:19.0 | bit of pathway which you can go and enjoy. So if you've been there before, do go there again. |
... |
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