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‘Stop It With The Sufferway’: Seoul City to Upgrade 5 Worst Transfer Stations

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'Stop It With The Sufferway': Seoul City to Upgrade 5 Worst Transfer Stations

136 thousand and 866 people.

This is the average number of daily passengers who passed through the ticket gates of the Line 1 portion of Seoul Station in order to get on or off the train from January to October this year. The number shows a 29.6% increase from last year’s 105,634, which is seen as a result of an increase in passengers after the opening of GTX-A and a greater number of foreign tourists. Workers who commute to work through the station often remark that ‘the station is busier than before’. Line 2 Hongik University Station, which is another station that is close to popular destinations for foreign tourists, also showed an increasing trend as this year saw 151,745 people daily, from last year’s 150,369. Exit number 9 in particular often appears to encroach on dangerous levels of crowding on weekends and weekday evenings.

Seoul City now seeks to take measures as voices of safety concerns grow alongside the number of passengers using major stations.

On the 4th, the city government revealed that it would partake in improvement projects for five key transfer stations to better the citizens’ safety and convenience. Seoul’s subway network, after its first opening in 1974, has undergone expansions for the last 50 years, including Lines 1-8, run by Seoul Metro, Line 9, the Sinbundang Line, and LRTs, including the Ui-Sinseol and Sillim lines. The city has made its efforts in handling the transit system’s congestion issues, such as increasing the number of trains during rush hour back in 2022 and reducing the average passenger congestion per train by 17%p.

One person within the city government said that “the existing station facilities are not easily able to handle the skyrocketing number of passengers,” and that “we first plan to redraw the movement paths the passengers will take because it’s much more difficult to expand or rebuild existing stations.”

The five stations the city plans to revamp are Hongik University, Seoul Station, Jamsil, Gangnam, and Sindorim. These five are regarded as some of the largest in terms of riders entering, exiting, or transferring through the station. The city experts created a grading system for service quality from A to F based on passenger density on platforms, walkways, stairs, etc. For example, an ‘A’ grade walkway means that passengers can freely walk through the path, while an ‘F’ grade walkway means that passengers have no freedom of passage and experience pushing crowds.

Under these grading schemes, Seoul Station’s transfer corridors and platforms received a service quality grade of E. Line 2 Gangnam Station’s inner stairway also received an E, along with Jamsil Station’s inner stairway and platform. For Line 2 Hongik University Station, exit number 9’s service quality was graded an F for failing passenger traffic and pushing crowds. The inner stairway at Line 2 Sindorim Station was also given an F.

The city plans to identify narrow paths and passenger traffic bottlenecks caused by obstructions, and improve service quality by removing said obstructions or moving gates by next year. The number of safety personnel at these five stations will also increase from 30 to 48 by then to strengthen safety management for citizens during rush hour.

For example, Hongik University Station will install more gates in the waiting area to disperse passengers heading towards the corridor. Seoul Station, crossed by five lines and thus having long and winding transfer passageways, will have upgraded signage on its floors and walls. Gangnam and Sindorim stations will widen their narrower spaces, and Jamsil station will restructure its busy transfer passageway.

Some stations will also get to have improved structures. In order to disperse the number of passengers passing through exit 9, Hongik University Station is planned to have a new exit between the current exits 8 and 9 by 2029. Seoul Station will expand its transfer routes, and Gangnam Station’s inner stairway, which is expected to require larger funding, will first go through a feasibility study for its expansion.

Yeo Janggwon, head of the city’s transportation department, stated that “Seoul will strengthen its role of serving as the center of the capital area transit network, while also improving the convenience and safety of its subway riders.”

submitted by /u/Fermion96
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