It opened the first railway line on the Korean peninsula,[1] running from Noryangjin, on the shore of the Han River across from Gyeongseong, to Chukhyeon in Incheon, on 18 September 1899.

Due to the First Sino-Japanese War and the assassination of Empress Myeongseong, support in the Korean government shifted away the pro-Japanese faction to pro-Russian and pro-American figures, on 29 March 1896 the rights to build the Gyeongin Railway were sold to Morse.

On 17 April Komura Jutarō, resident Japanese minister to Korea, filed a protest with the Korean government claiming that the sale of the railway rights to Morse constituted a violation of the Interim Joint Provisions.

In order to reacquire the construction rights, Japanese interests spread rumours about political instability in Korea, leading to the withdrawal of Morse's American investors.

On 4 May, the Gyeongin Railway Underwriting Association was formed, and Morse, via Ōkawa Heizaburō (ja), offered to sell the project to Shibusawa Eiichi.