Starting from the 7th, if you do not tag your transportation card when exiting the subway, an additional basic fare will be charged. This measure is intended to prevent fare evasion by blocking the practice of not tagging upon exit to avoid distance-based additional fares.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government on the 6th, from January to November last year, there were an average of about 8,000 cases per day where passengers did not tag their transportation cards when exiting the subway operated by Seoul Metro.

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Since the introduction of the metropolitan area integrated transfer fare system in 2004, a penalty has been applied for not tagging your card upon exit, resulting in the loss of transfer discounts between buses and subways. However, there was no penalty for not tagging your card when using only the urban railway section.

The company determined that this could cause fairness issues among citizens who pay the correct fare and persuaded metropolitan area urban railway operators to amend the passenger transportation terms and conditions.

Under this new policy, transportation cards without an exit tag will be recorded in the system, and the basic fare will be automatically charged when boarding again. The policy applies to both prepaid and postpaid transportation cards, but not to commuter passes, single-use tickets, or discount cards. The additional amount will be the basic fare for each ticket category: 1,550 won for adults, 900 won for teenagers, and 550 won for children.

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The Seoul Metropolitan Government will operate an emergency situation room to ensure the smooth operation of the 'Penalty Imposition for Missed Subway Exit Tagging' system. The city will confirm the correct charging of independent and transfer fares between metropolitan area buses and subways and will respond immediately on-site if a system malfunction occurs. Until the end of this month, the company will intensively promote the policy through joint campaigns with metropolitan area urban railway operators at major transfer stations such as Seoul Station and Hongik University Station.

The company emphasized that “this measure is not intended to create a new burden, but to prevent intentional fare evasion by not tagging when exiting, and to address the institutional gap that existed when only the urban railway section was used.”