Route card cheaters embarrassed... "Wishing elders good health" announcement sound

Many Non-Eligible Users for Senior Fare Discounts
Introduced to Prevent Subway Fare Evasion
Planned Expansion After Pilot Operation in Parts of Seoul

An audio announcement system will be introduced to sanction people who use borrowed or found transportation cards to ride the subway for free.

On the 13th, Seoul Metro announced that starting this month, it will conduct a pilot test of an audio announcement saying "Eoreusin geonganghaseyo" ("Wishing good health to seniors") when senior discount cards are tapped at subway station turnstiles.

With the audio announcement, not only the cardholder but also nearby passengers can easily recognize whether the person is eligible for the senior discount, which is expected to help prevent fare evasion. The pilot project will be conducted at 10 stations with high passenger traffic, including Jongno, Gangnam, Sindorim, and Gwanghwamun.

On the 13th, Seoul Metro announced that starting this month, a pilot program will be conducted to play a voice message saying "Elderly, stay healthy" when senior citizen discount cards are scanned at subway station turnstiles.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

This project was proposed by Assemblyman Lee Byung-yoon (People Power Party, Dongdaemun 1) during the April temporary session of the Seoul Metropolitan Council's Urban Transportation Office report. According to the assemblyman, from 2020 to April this year, a total of 173,295 cases of subway fare evasion occurred. Among these, improper use of discount cards, such as borrowing cards from acquaintances, accounted for 120,444 cases, or 69.5% of the total.

Seoul City and Seoul Metro will pilot audio announcements for three types of discount cards most commonly used: Seoul and Gyeonggi senior transportation cards, single-use senior discount cards, and foreign permanent resident senior discount cards, starting from the 15th of this month for three months.

The city and Seoul Metro plan to comprehensively evaluate the effect on reducing fare evasion, public response, and frequency of complaints after the three-month trial and decide whether to expand the system within this year. Assemblyman Lee said, "I hope this will make lawful users feel good and help improve Seoul Metro's deficit operation caused by fare evasion."

Cases of fare evaders fined 1 million won for trying to save 13,500 won

On the 13th, Seoul Metro announced that starting this month, it will pilot a voice guidance system at subway station turnstiles that says "Elderly, stay healthy" when senior discount cards are scanned. The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. [Photo by Yonhap News]

If caught fare evading, one must pay the single-ride fare for the evaded section plus a penalty of 30 times that fare. Since the basic fare for a single-use transportation card is 1,350 won, the penalty is at least 41,850 won. Failure to pay the penalty fare may result in criminal charges.

In fact, in 2018, a man in his 50s who rode the subway for free about 10 times a month using a senior discount transportation card was prosecuted and fined 1 million won.

According to Article 348 of the Criminal Act, if a person gains benefits by using paid automatic facilities such as vending machines or public telephones without paying, they may face imprisonment of up to three years or a fine of up to 5 million won.

At that time, the court explained, "The subway senior discount transportation card can only be used by those aged 65 or older. If a person who has not reached this age uses a senior discount card to ride the train, it should be regarded as unauthorized use of a paid automatic facility, the automatic turnstile."

The man appealed the ruling, claiming the law was ambiguous and even filed a constitutional complaint, but in 2021, the Constitutional Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of Article 348-2 of the Criminal Act concerning 'unauthorized use of convenience facilities' in the constitutional complaint case.

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