The Train is Now Approaching
Sunday, September 21, 2008 at 4:49 PM Please wait behind the yellow line...!
So you were going to take The Metro to work on Friday. Think again. For a couple of reasons. The least of which being that the train drivers on the publicly owned lines 1,2,3 and 4 are striking on Friday.
Union members of Seoul Metro decided Friday to go on strike from Sept. 26 to protest a management plan to layoff 20 percent of its workers. The decision comes after nine months of negotiations between the operator of subway lines 1 to 4 and its employees failed to narrow their differences on the layoff plan. Additionally, the company has started to outsource workers for three of its lost-and-found bureaus as part of a streamlining project, which has infuriated unionists.
This will be the first strike by the state-operated body after President Lee Myung-bak took his office in February.
...which is technically true, but has little nothing to do with it really. Good one Joong-ang Ilbo, just get my IHT to me on time thanks.
Nevertheless it's not surprising that The Metro is trying to save a bit of cash, what with it loosing something like 5.45 trillion Won in the last 25 years. On average The Metro spent ₩1007 per passenger last year. Bare in mind the basic fare is ₩1000 or ₩900 with a transit card, but in addition The average fare per person was 723 won for
Lines One to Four and 834 won for Lines Five to Eight, resulting in a
284-to-428 won loss per passenger. All those Won add up it seems.
But that's not even the half of it:
It has been 25-35 years since lines 1-4 were built, but even the rails that were put down in 1994 do not meet safety standards.
As many as 17 of the platforms are so over-crowded that the risk of an accident is high, while barely 60% of the stations have air-conditioning units installed.
The subway systems in other cities such as Busan, Daegu, and Gwangju don’t use asbestos, yet in 285 stations in Seoul it is still being used, and an asbestos removal operation would cost over 130 billion won.
29% of the trains are past their 25-year service life, while 36% of the signalling and electrics desperately need to be repaired or completely replaced.
In the case of the other subway systems, the ratio of tunnels to boxes is 49% to 51%, but in Seoul the ratio is 21% for tunnels and 79% for boxes. This results in a needlessly excessive repair bill. It has also been revealed that the ventilation and sound systems are in poor condition.
Nice. Asbestos. Yummy.
Take into account the number of people who have thrown themselves in front of trains in the year to September - some 16 individuals - and the toll that running over someone with a frakin train takes on a train driver, not to mention the grevious harm you might come to by using the escalator in a Metro station....
You might want to start walking to work.
Korea, Korean Media 
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Reader Comments (4)
All I can say is hey, at least they have a subway system. And hey at least I don't have to wait half an hour (or sometimes an hour) if I happen to miss train.
Looking forward to riding the new "red" line 9 at the start of next year. Not to mention a whole lot more new stuff in the coming years.
argh I remember foolishly trying to catch the subway during a strike back in 2003. The train got so packed my feet were literally lifted off the floor!
Free subway ride to work this morning. Not complaining. 900 won can get you a bottle of soju at the supermarket you know.
I often wondered how they could make money on such small fares.
Now I know: they don't!
Whch is a real shame because It is one of THE most integrated transport systems in the world. I hope they take this as a wake up call and start spending money on the maintenance.
London stopped spending enough money to maintain "the tube" in the 60's and 70's.
They have been trying to catch up ever since.