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SEOUL, South Korea - I've lived in New York City for seven years. And, over the course of those seven years, the city's subway system has seemingly conspired to ruin my life.
There are countless meetings I have sprinted into late because the train decided to stop running. I was once stuck underground at 2 a.m. for an hour and a half. I have been crushed by crowds on L trains, stranded on F trains, and paid way too much for Ubers after giving up on A trains ever arriving.
Before we get into the subway itself, allow me to give a little background — I am not good at transportation.
Being in a country alone where you don't speak the language, it is easy to feel like a bit of an idiot all the time. Since I arrived in Seoul, most of my conversations have been "thank you," "hello," and nodding while smiling. Recently, after fumbling a street food order, I added insult to my own injury by poking a hole in my cup of eomuk and spilling fish cake broth all over myself.
When it comes to transportation, I don't even need the excuse of not speaking the language to not know what is going on. I just fully lack a natural sense of direction. When I was heading to JFK Airport to catch my plane to Seoul — an airport I have flown out of countless times — I got on the subway heading the wrong direction because my muscle memory wanted me to go to my office.
What I'm trying to say is: if I can understand a public transportation system, it is so straightforward a child can navigate it.
And yet, even I can figure out the Seoul subway system.
After a week of using the system, I found it to be not only easy to use, but also speedy, clean, convenient, and inexpensive.
A quick ride from Jongno 3(sam)ga station to Gyeongbokgung is not much time on the train, but it exemplifies a lot of what I grew to appreciate about the Seoul subway system.
South Korea is one of just a few countries in the world to ban the use of Google Maps. You can now use Google Maps to determine subway routes, but you're typically better off using KakaoMap or the subway app. I usually used a mix of KakaoMap, Google Maps (which is better at picking up English translations of destinations), and Maps.Me (which allowed me to download maps offline).
The first step of falling in love with the Seoul subway system is figuring out how to pay.
I will admit that my love affair with the Seoul subway system got off to a rocky start.
To board the subway, you need to use a T-Card, a Cash Bee card, or an app linked to these cards. You can buy a T-Card at the airport, convenience stores, banks, or most major stations. However, you can't buy one at every station — something I found out attempting to board the subway for the first time on the Shinbundang Line.
Luckily, you can buy a single ride pass anywhere in the subway system. So, I got a one-way ticket to my destination in Ganganam, which was near a station where I could buy a T-Money card. By the time I was heading to Gyeongbokgung, I had already reloaded my card once.
Once you have your T-money card, things get much easier. Instead of having to select where you are going, as with the single-use card, just make sure your card is loaded up and head towards the tracks.
The basic subway fare is just 1,250 won, or about $1, using your T-Money card. Trips get more expensive if you go more than 10 km on the train.
The card, which has a surprising amount of heft, can be reloaded at service desks or reloading devices at the stations.
You enter the station by holding your card to the scanner — no swiping necessary. Just don't somehow lose your pre-loaded card, because you're going to need it again to get out of the station.
The light blinks red when you are good to walk through, a color choice that originally startled me.
Seoul's subway system carries about 7 million people every day.
The train system connects Seoul to the suburbs and beyond, with 1,000 miles of track according to City Metric. If you count the more regional rail lines as part of the system, then Seoul is easily the largest subway in the world. However, if you just count tracks one to nine, it is about a fifth of that size.
To help people get around the massive system, Seoul subway stations have extensive signage, with instructions on where to exit and transfer to different lines in more than one language.
Even in the large stations, it is easy to see which direction to head and even how many meters you need to walk until you reach your destination.
The signs also help because many of the stations themselves are massive, housing underground shopping centers before and after fare control (where riders swipe into the subway).
The shops sell everything from clothing to food to K-pop fan merchandise.
You can also shop at the number of vending machines as you wait for your train to arrive.
Nearly all stations have platform screen doors that only open when the train pulls into the station.
In New York, dozens of people and countless cell phones, Airpods, and bits of garbage fall onto the subway tracks every year.
The doors have the added bonus of making the stations significantly quieter than the often-deafening New York City subway stations.
While you're waiting, you can check when the next train will arrive on a screen.
Really, you don't even need the signs to tell you when the train is going to turn up. I never had to wait more than five minutes for a train, unlike in New York when I frequently find myself waiting indefinitely or letting over-crowded trains pass, hoping for room on the next one.
Plus, when a train is pulling up, the station plays a musical cue and an announcement of an incoming train in both Korean and English.
Boarding the train is a far more organized affair than in New York.
Riders line up behind the arrows to board the train. It's not a perfect straight line, but it is a far cry from the battle to get on the G train I endure every morning in Brooklyn.
The trains themselves are clean and quiet, with specially reserved seats for pregnant women.
If there isn't anyone who is pregnant on the train, the brightly colored pink seats will remain empty.
The corner section with red seats is reserved for seniors and handicapped people.
Again, this isn't a set up where you can use the seat and give it up if an old person gets on the train. If you don't need these seats, you don't use them.
I snagged a seat and realized something incredible. On a cold, 20-degree day in Seoul, I had happened upon a train... with heated seats.
This was so far from the cold hard seats of the New York City subway I almost teared up.
Plus, there was WiFi. Most of the lines and stations have at least some WiFi options, although my phone was iffy on connecting to some of the free networks available. Seoul is upgrading the system, with plans to have free public WiFi available across the entire network.
A screen on the train announces the next station, with information in Korean and English.
Some of the screens are more high-tech than others, but all are helpful in making sure you're heading in the right direction. The next stop is also announced out loud, in Korean and English.
On some lines, the screen additionally plays informational videos about the subway system.
I saw several different videos during my time in Seoul, including this one in which various foods learn how to use the subway.
Exiting the train, signs are once again crucial for finding your way out of the station.
It took me a few rides on the subway to realize how many exits certain stations have, and how important it is to take the correct one.
The exits can be pretty far from each other, so picking the right one can be crucial to heading in the right direction.
However, following the signs, it was easy to get to Gyeongbokgung Palace.
The exit dropped me off literally at the palace entrance.
In my week of riding the subway, my trains all hummed along pleasantly without announcements of delays or held trains.
The only announcements I heard were upcoming stops and how to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Warnings about the coronavirus could not dampen my appreciation for Seoul's subway.
Signs explained that subways and subway stations were being regularly sanitized to prevent the spread of germs.
I even tried out the bus system and found it to be almost as intuitive as the train.
You can use your T-Money card on the bus as well as the train. In some cases, the bus can be significantly more direct than the subway, getting you to exactly where you need to go in much less time.
The free WiFi on the bus was also a nice touch.
The New York City subway runs all night, unlike Seoul's system which stops around midnight. And, Seoul only debuted in 1974, meaning it isn't held back by some infrastructure issues that plague the MTA due to its age.
But, at the end of the day, Seoul's subway beats New York City's on value, cleanliness, timeliness, and pretty much every other measurable factor.
It has heated seats and screens reassuring me that I'm going in the right direction, for goodness' sake. It is going to be hard for any other subway system can compare, much less one that is crumbling before my eyes.
