Subway to my Seoul

Editor’s Note:  Occasionally, GreenGoPost will take you on a global tour of other cities’ transportation systems.  We’ll start in Seoul, South Korea.  We believe one of the best ways to get familiar with a city, and learn a little about everyday life, is to get off of the tour bus and to take mass transit.

 “Taum yogeun, Shin-sa, Shin-sa im-ni-da . . . nae-ri shim-eun weon-jjok im-ni-da . . . “

 In English . . . "The next stop is Shin-sa, the door will open on your left. " I still have that annoucement stuck in my head.

I lived in Korea for a few years in the mid-nineties, and loved its subway system.  Seoul’s subway reflects Korea’s emergence on the global economic scene:  its first line was finished in the 1970s; in 1988, when Seoul hosted the 1988 Olympics, it had expanded to four lines, and by 2000, nine lines crisscrossed this metropolis of 10+ million people, its suburbs, and even to the port city, Inch’eon.  Three more lines are currently under construction, and AREX, which connects Inch’eon International Airport to its predecessor (and far more convenient) Gimpo, will extend to Seoul Station, the city’s central railway terminal, by next year.

The beauty of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway is its simplicity.  For the foreign visitor, signs in Roman letters make it easy to navigate, and most trains run every three minutes during rush hour; evenings and weekends, no more than every ten minutes.

The system is also cost-effective:  back in 1995, tickets within Zone 1, which covers most of Seoul, was about 400 won or 50 cents American.  Tickets currently start at 1000 won, which is still under US$1.  Recently Korail, the system’s administrator, retired the paper and magnetic striped tickets with a plastic one using RFID technology:  the small caveat is that you pay a 500 won deposit for the card, which can be returned at any station after use.  Buying the tickets from automated or manned kiosks is intuitive, and many subway stations are mini shopping systems:  the requisite coffee machines, along with convenience stores, beauty supply shops, and even eyeglass outlets are a common sight.

Most of Seoul's subway trains are manufactured in Korea by a subsidiary of Daewoo.  Once you enter your train, you’ll see how the cars are designed for a system that transports millions of commuters daily:  seats run parallel along the central aisle, which is critical, though of course potentially uncomfortable, during rush hour.  Take the Blue Line from the northern suburban areas downtown at 8:00 a.m., and you’ll see why.

For the resident, few neighborhoods are out of reach of the subway; for visitors, just about every tourist spot or business center is within a few blocks of the subway.  The beauty for the casual visitor is that you can take the subway and go hiking in the mountains surrounding Seoul—and in the evening, fewer sights are more breathtaking than going up the escalator at a Kangnam or Chongno station, and finding yourself wowed by the endless wave of neon signs and energetic nightlife.

The negatives:  not every station is friendly for the disabled or post-knee replacement crowd—you’ll find many exits lack escalators.  Most buses are privately run, so for accessing those more remote neighborhoods, it’s difficult to plan a trip; rush hour is not as horrific but in Tokyo, but traumatic for the faint at heart; and the operating hours usually end around midnight, which would be all right if . . . taxi meter rates did not increase at the same time, which makes hailing a cab chaotic—end your evening out around 11:00 p.m., or party until 2:00 a.m., when the taxi madness should die down.

Few cities have as impressive a system . . . or one as safe and clean as Seoul’s.  If you think your city's system leaves Seoul's in the dust . . . please let us know why!