Seoul City to Install at Least One Elevator in 326 Subway Stations

Making Public Transportation More Convenient for All Citizens Including the Transportation Vulnerable... Improving Usage Environment by 2025
Securing One Route per Subway Station... Low-floor Bus Adoption Rate from 74.8% to 100%

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government is promoting improvements to the public transportation environment by 2025 to enhance mobility convenience for transportation-vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities. The plan aims to ensure that not only transportation-vulnerable individuals using wheelchairs but also elderly people, pregnant women, caregivers with infants, and children can use public transportation without any inconvenience.

According to Seoul City on the 10th, the city will first secure a ‘one station, one route’ system by installing boarding convenience facilities such as elevators and escalators at each subway station. At least one elevator will be installed in all 326 stations, and infrastructure will be established so that transportation-vulnerable individuals can conveniently move from the ground level to the platform without assistance when using the subway. As of February, the ‘one station, one route’ securing rate is 93.6%, and construction will be gradually promoted at the 21 stations where this system has not yet been secured.

In addition, for city buses, the accessibility for transportation-vulnerable groups will be significantly improved by introducing 100% low-floor buses by 2025. This year alone, the number of low-floor buses will be increased to 511, raising the rate to 74.8%, and a total of 6,564 buses will be introduced across all routes step by step. For village buses, 71 buses will be introduced this year, and 235 buses across 73 routes will be introduced by 2025. Except for routes where low-floor buses cannot operate due to factors such as narrow road widths or steep slopes, the introduction will be expanded to all routes.

The waiting time for disabled call taxis for transportation-vulnerable individuals using wheelchairs will also be drastically reduced from the current 32 minutes to about 25 minutes. By increasing the number of drivers, the operation rate will be improved by more than 10%, and the number of vehicles will be increased to raise the existing legal vehicle fulfillment rate to 114%.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government explained, "To reduce waiting times, we plan to add 100 drivers to secure more than 1.3 drivers per vehicle," adding, "Through this, the current 72% operation rate of disabled call taxis will be increased by 10% to 82%, and the legal vehicle fulfillment rate will be gradually increased to achieve 150% by 2025."

Seoul City will continue to prepare various measures to improve mobility convenience for transportation-vulnerable groups. In addition to securing infrastructure, surveys and performance evaluations will be conducted to enhance user satisfaction with convenience facilities, focusing on creating a transportation environment that citizens need.

Baek Ho, Director of Urban Transportation at Seoul City, said, “We will strive to continuously expand infrastructure and improve the environment so that all citizens, including transportation-vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities, can use Seoul’s public transportation safely and conveniently.”

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