If you think Montreal's metro is complex or difficult to navigate, think again!
Montreal's metro features 68 stations scattered among a mere four metro lines, one of the lines consisting of only THREE stations. What's more, the Montreal metro covers only a fraction of Montreal itself, almost completely ignoring the suburbs!
The Seoul metro on the other hand...
Even after having lived in Madrid and navigating that complex metro system, this is just a completely different animal.
The city of Seoul and its suburbs counts upwards of 25 million people, and it's safe to say that, no matter which suburb you live in, you are in general proximity of a metro station. The metro network counts 20 lines, 287km of track and 291 stations, and is undergoing rapid expansion still today.
The metro is so expansive, advanced and impressive that it's actually been named the world's second best according to this CNN Travel article, and has consistently been ranked among the best in the world according to several sources.
Seoul's metro gets you EVERYWHERE. The challenge is navigating the many lines, of course, but announcements and messages are announced/displayed in Korean, followed by English, Chinese and Japanese. Missing your stop is quite possible, and has happened to me, but if you pay attention then it's not likely to happen.
Seoul's metro is so expansive it reaches into Incheon, a neighbouring city considered truly a city on its own, independent from Seoul. It connects to Seoul's two airports and its line 1 stretches far south, and far north... In fact, according to my Seoul Metro app, it would take approximately FOUR HOURS to follow Line 1 from one end to the other.
The problem is that the city of Seoul is so enormous that even if you want to get from one part of downtown to another, it'll likely require 15-20+ minute metro ride, so you better get acquainted with the map.
I live at Mokdong Station, which is on the purple line (Line 5), three stops to the east of its intersection with the green line (Line 2).
The metro system, however, is rather lauded for a variety of other reasons.
First off, wifi is widespread and available at most stations, though, unfortunately, you do need to have a Korean phone number to be able to connect to it, which I do not, so it's less tourist-friendly in that sense.
Additionally, the metro is very well air-conditioned. Even though the metro karts themselves are air-conditioned, however, the stations are often not cooled, making waiting for a train to come on a hot day a very painful task, and trust me, during the Seoul summers, air-conditioning is quite necessary. You even have the option to select karts with weaker air-conditioning if you prefer, which is quite useful.
The stations themselves are also quite large. The station near my house, Mokdong, which is not by any means a major station, has EIGHT exits, meaning that when you plan on meeting friends at a certain station, you always need to specify the exit you wish to meet at.
Once inside the station, there are screens telling you when the next trains are scheduled to leave, and there are other screens downstairs on the platform. One of the key features of the metro platforms, and personally one that I really appreciate, is that the tracks are blocked off with a glass, and thus it is utterly impossible for anyone to jump onto the tracks, a great initiative when it comes to suicide prevention. The only time I'd ever seen something similar was in Barcelona, though this only applied to its airport line.
Once inside the metro, there are seats lining the sides of the karts, but no seats assorted vertically, something like this:
Obviously this makes it tough if you're in a group of friends of three or more because you won't be able to face each other, but those are just details.
Every train, and most karts, have reserved seating for the elderly, pregnant women and individuals with physical disabilities, and what's unique here is that nobody will ever sit in any of these seats, even if they remain vacant during rush-hour.
A real pain in this metro, however, is changing lines. You will often need to walk five minutes or more to catch a train connection, and this includes going down a few long hallways and up and down several sets of stairs/escalators (I will never complain about Jean-Talon again...), though most stations do offer elevators for those incapable of doing the stairs.
Even though the Seoul metro is great in many ways, there are certain aspects to it that actually make me prefer both Montreal's and Madrid's metro to it.
First off, the opening hours. The last trains from the terminal stations usually depart at around midnight, meaning that you should be on the metro or at least heading toward your station at around that time and no later.
And this is on weeknights! I learned the hard way that the metro closes... EARLIER... on weekends, meaning that if you miss the 11:30 train, well, catch a cab!
Seoulites tell me this is normal, one Korean friend even telling me that she found it weird when she lived in Montreal and our metro closed quite a bit later on Saturday nights.
Still, given all the drunk driving on Montreal's roads on weekends, and a movement to keep the metro open all night every Friday and Saturday night back at home, it seems as if Seoul is doing just the opposite... In fact, I remember when visiting Porto I learned that the metro was open all night on weekends there, and in Berlin it's open 24/7 all the time...
Which brings us to the metro's second important shortcoming, in my opinion, which is pricing. To access the metro, you'll need a T-money card. Here's a photo of mine.
You need to scan this card upon entering and exiting the metro without fail. The basic fare upon entering the metro is 1250 won (about $1.40 CAD), and, depending on the distance you travel, you may be charged a bit extra once you get off the metro. The most I've been charged extra has been 200 won (approximately $0.22 CAD), so the metro really isn't that expensive.
Additionally, what's highly convenient is that your T-money card also works in other Korean cities, and in taxis. So, for example, when I went to Busan for three days I was able to use the exact same card to access the metro, which really saves you a hassle.
This said, frequent metro users suffer most from the pricing scheme. A Korean friend was actually telling me that public transit costs her way too much money because she needs to take the metro to get from her house to work and from her house to school and it was all just way too expensive. There is no monthly pass here, nor is there a daily pass or weekly pass. Essentially it's pay-as-you-go, and there's no way around that (similar to London).
So, if you're a tourist or an infrequent metro user, then the basic 1250 won fare is very cheap (compared to Montreal's $3.25 one way), however if you need to take the metro two, three, four or more times a day, well, it's gonna cost you, and that can get very expensive. When comparing that to Montreal's $50 monthly pass, or Madrid's €20 monthly pass, or, even better yet, Turin's €180 yearly pass, well, 1250 won per journey definitely makes things less affordable, and there's not even a student discount!
Thus, simply for pricing and the early closing time on weekends, I will personally deem Seoul's metro as not very student/young person-friendly, however it definitely makes up for that in many other ways.
But hey, at least cabs are cheap.
-Daniele
