Seoul Subway to Operate Shortened Hours Until Midnight Starting April 1... Additional Disinfection and Sanitization Tasks Added

92.6% of Late-Night Trips Are for Entertainment and Leisure, Not Work or Daily Activities
Early Return Campaign Expected to Help Prevent Cluster Infections in Clubs and More

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Starting from the 1st of next month, the Seoul Metropolitan Government will shorten subway operating hours by one hour, from the current 1 a.m. to midnight. This measure is to enforce stricter social distancing amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

On the 30th, Seoul analyzed subway usage and passenger patterns based on transportation card data?including prepaid and postpaid cards, single-ride tickets, and commuter passes?in collaboration with Seoul Metro and Korail. The analysis showed that during the week following the declaration of the COVID-19 'serious' alert on the 23rd of last month, ridership decreased by 40.5% compared to the previous year.

In particular, during late-night hours after midnight, the average number of passengers per car on Lines 1 to 8 was 6.4, with all lines except Line 5 recording single-digit occupancy rates, indicating very low usage.

Additionally, analyzing subway ridership from the 16th to the 20th of this month, when 'social distancing' was implemented to prevent cluster infections, the top 10 stations with the highest late-night ridership were identified as areas densely populated with universities, entertainment, and leisure facilities, including Gangnam, Hongdae Ipgu, Konkuk University Ipgu, Sadang, and Hapjeong.

To distinguish between passengers traveling out of necessity during late-night hours and those traveling for leisure and entertainment, the repeated trip rate over a week at these 10 stations was analyzed. The rate of repeated trips twice or more per week for essential reasons such as work was 11.3% after 11 p.m. and 7.4% after midnight.

Conversely, the rate of once-per-week trips for leisure and entertainment was 88.7% after 11 p.m. and 92.6% after midnight, indicating that the primary reason for using late-night trains is one-time, non-routine travel for leisure and entertainment.

Accordingly, it is analyzed that the shortened subway operation is unlikely to cause significant inconvenience to low-income groups or those who must travel for essential work purposes, alleviating social concerns.

In particular, there have been ongoing criticisms that late-night operations without passengers constitute social waste and that there is insufficient time for safety inspections and increased disinfection efforts.

Moreover, considering the recent emergence of cluster infections at entertainment and leisure facilities such as clubs and colatecs as a social issue, Seoul explains that this is a timely moment for more proactive social distancing and early return home campaigns utilizing public transportation and social infrastructure, including shortening subway operating hours.

Seoul also explained that with the reduction in train operation hours, the post-operation work time can be extended from the current 2 hours to 3 hours. This will allow for more stable execution of disinfection and sterilization tasks and is expected to improve the progress rate of major safety-related projects.

The last subway train operating times vary by line and station, and the revised timetable will be announced on the operating agencies’ websites and posted at each station.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.