The Fastest Growing Subway in the World? | Seoul Subway

this video is sponsored by nebula the educational streaming service created by me and my Creator Friends check out the link in the description or stay tuned to learn more I and a lot of other Transit lovers spend a lot of time talking about huge cities and their impressive Transit networks from Shanghai to Paris and Tokyo but the city we should spend far more time talking about is Seoul with an impressive and well thought out Metro Light Metro Suburban Railway and brt system that is also rapidly expanding its Transit options so let's get on board and see all that Soul's incredible transport system has to offer [Music] Seoul is a huge city which is part of why it took me so long to do a video on it the region it sits within and is deeply interconnected with has over 25 million residents about half of South Korea's population I've actually visited the city before but getting a grasp on it is really hard Seoul is surrounded by and pockmarked by mountains and divided into North and South by the Han River and like fellow Asian Mega City Tokyo Seoul really has multiple Central Business districts or CBDs most notably around Seoul station just west of the massive Namsan park at the center of the city Gangnam south of the Han River and yorido and the greater yangdongpal area which is the main finance and government district with the National Assembly as well as many offices sitting on an island in the river the city is sprawling and decentralized with a number of other large cities and New Towns such as Incheon to the Southwest which have effectively merged into a megalopolis and if you've ever heard of the songdo Smart City that's actually a district within Incheon and if you like me are fascinated by skyscrapers The Latte World Tower the world's sixth tallest is in the southeast of the city adjacent to latte World theme park and Mall as well as the Olympic Park located just to the east from the 1988 Summer Olympics hosted right in the city it's also important to point out the almost unbelievable density of parts of Seoul it's common around the city and suburbs to see Parcels of land developed with 10 or 20 high rises packed together often but not always directly served by Rapid Transit because while Seoul is awesome for its Rapid Transit it also has a crazy number of major roads and highways and is building far more in the suburbs particularly south of the city I remember traveling from Tokyo to Seoul and being shocked at the side eyes of the streets and the amount of traffic the car culture is real here though roads do often also have nutty brts with more buses than I think I've ever seen anywhere else including in Latin America Seoul has two major airports Incheon the main International Hub is roughly 50 kilometers west of Seoul station on an island off the coast of its namesake City it has four runways and moved over 70 million people per year pre-pandemic and has all kinds of crazy on-site amenities including several golf courses much closer to the urban core is Gimpo Airport which mostly serves domestic travel has two runways and moved around 25 million passengers per year pre-pandemic pets around as many people as Vancouver airport of course the city also has a number of major Railway stations that tend to be hubs for not only High-Speed Rail but also Regional and urban rail Services as well these include but are not limited to yongsan Seoul near the Seoul station CBD obviously and Chiang nangi stations north of the Han as well as yangdongpur and suse stations south of the Han river near the yoido and gangnam CBDs respectively so those are most of the major destinations I wanted to mention so you have a rough idea of just a bit of the geography of Seoul from here let's dive into the soul Metropolitan Subway which can get really confusing because it has several components the urban Subways of Solon Incheon various Suburban Rail lines typically run by Corral Korea's national Railway and a number of light Metro lights connecting different neighborhoods and destinations I should say that almost universally and with all new Urban rail projects platform screen doors are included and most stations on seoul's rapid transit system also have public washrooms there's also ubiquitous Wi-Fi and 5G cellular service the these amenities help to make Souls Metro among the world's most accessible and best connected but also just a pleasure to use with screen doors and Wi-Fi at the transport element of this mass transit system almost completely Fades away in Seoul Urban Subway lines run on the right and almost always have a 1500 volt DC overhead power system with a top speed of 80 kilometers per hour while core Rail lines run on the left and typically run with 25 kilovolt AC electrification at speeds of up to around 110 kilometers per hour from here on out I'll only mention electrification or speed when it differs from these norms and I should mention that all conventional steel wheeled Rail lines in Seoul have standard gauge tracks now diving into the Metro this network forms the core Rapid Transit service in the city with large trains frequent service and fairly dense stops while lines do extend into the suburbs they all spend a fairly substantial part of their lengths in the dense Urban core the first line in the Seoul Metro we'll talk about is the most used line line two this line is 60 kilometers long with 51 stations and forms a massive Central Loop within Seoul crossing the Han river twice and connecting the three CBDs the line has two branches which act more like shuttles connecting to the main line with shorter trains when compared to the tengar ones used on the loop if you're curious most Soul Metro and Corel lines use rail cars that are about 3.1 meters wide and 19.5 meters long similar to but wider than Urban trains in Tokyo several sections of line 2 are above ground on elevated viaducts including the Eastern section crossing the Honda the southwest and some of the northern Branch the line also connects to numerous other Urban rail services and the Olympic Park area and has a slightly higher than normal 90 kilometer per hour top speed line 3 is a 57 kilometer 44 station line running from the Northwest to Southeast connecting to suseo station most of the line is underground though it does pop above ground a few times including when it crosses the river lion 3 does have through running onto the core rail ilsan line but given its electrified at 1500 volts DC and runs on the right it is more or less captive to line three trains on the route are 10 cars long and as with other lines in Soul and cities like Shanghai many services end before the terminal in what's called a short turn lion 4 has 51 stations over 72 kilometers running from the Northeast to the southwest of the region connecting to Seoul station in the middle the northern part of the route is almost all underground with short sections popping above although the southern part of the route is almost all above ground short of tunnels traveling under Hills not long after passing south of the Han River the Lions track swap orientation underground to align with corel's left hand running and power shifts to 25 kilovolts AC the trains which are dual mode are also 10 cars long and can go faster on the Suburban sections at up to 100 kilometers per hour and there are actually passing Loops to enable Express Services the line does all of this as it shares a portion of its route with the coral suen bundang line which we will discuss later metro line 5 has 57 stations along a 63 kilometer entirely underground East-West Corridor across Seoul crossing the Han twice and splitting into two branches in the East the line connects to Gimpo Airport at its West End yoido and the Olympic Park on its Southern Branch at the East End the other Branch follows the river Northeast connecting Hanam to Seoul trains on line 5 are 8 cars long Line 6 is a 39 station 36 kilometer Line running east west across Seoul north of the Han in a broad u-shape almost entirely underground very uniquely on the west end of the line there's a one-directional counterclockwise loop with a number of single platform stations while the easternmost station on the line is an above ground single track terminal adjacent to the Lion's main yard that receives a limited service but perhaps helps to offset the inconvenience of situating a train yard near residence this line uses eight-car trains running 60 kilometers with 53 stations line 7 connects from seoul's Northeast across the Han where it connects to Gangnam before continuing West all the way to Incheon or connects to both of its to Metro lines like lions 5 and 6 line 7 uses all a car trains and the line is also essentially fully underground depending on whether you count the yards and tracks on a lower deck of a road bridge over the Han as being above ground like with line 6 the northernmost Terminal Station on line 7 has a single platform next to the Lion's main yard which receives some limited service wine 8 is the shortest of these Seoul Metro lines with just 18 stations over 18 kilometers of track and it runs relatively short six car trains to match the entire line is south of the Han in the Southeast quadrant of the city with only one above ground station so line 9 which is covered in logos for Metro 9 the operating company is a 41 kilometer 38 station Line Traveling east west south of bihan akin to Line 6 to the north connecting Gimpo Airport yoido Gangnam and the Olympic Park the line is entirely underground short of its terminal and westernmost station and has local and express trains with passing Loops at some stations this project was actually implemented as a P3 and has had lots of issues as planners underestimated ridership and the initial Fair scheme was actually disintegrated it's quite a complex situation though there is a great article about some of the problems by Xiang Li on their substack the last Seoul metro line and also the most complex line is line one which is a 200 kilometer 97 station Beast of a line more complicated than many City's entire metros the deceptive thing about Line 1 is that only nine kilometers and 10 stations worth of lion is really a traditional Urban subway running between Seoul station and chiangyangi station the 1500 volt DC portion of the line is limited to the central tunnel and most of the line operates at 25 kilovolts AC power instead the entire line runs on the left as per core rail standards because Line 1 runs between two of seoul's biggest stations onto the approach tracks on either side it also connects several other major stations like yangsan the line is essentially made up of three legs the line to the north of chongyangi is the through-running young one line meanwhile from the south of Seoul station the branches run together to guro where some Services split onto the gong inline to inshan and others to the young Blue Line the Legacy Mainline to boost on those services in that direction actually terminate by diverting onto the Zhang Hong line in xiaan actual local train Services run from various points on the North End of the northern like to Incheon as well as points slightly further south on the Northern leg two points along the southern like including a branch to syeongdong tan there's also a shuttle between yangdong Po and guangmion on top of the local Services there are numerous Express trains that can pass slower local trains on the outer rail quarters which are usually at least quad track since these tracks are also used for some Freight Regional and Intercity trains you can sometimes see freight trains passing through Metro stations with platform screen doors which is really Unique Express Services run from various points on the northern lake to Incheon including a super express service which makes few stops as well as various points on the southern light to Seoul station and chongyang Yi the express service pattern for each of the three legs is completely distinct local services use both Corel and soul Metro trains while Express sources generally use Corel trains only fun fact as it turns out the famous changichon linear Park that used to be the site of an elevated Urban Highway also heavily depended on new Metro Services until Line 1 and 2 that run directly to the north and south of it along with other Metro lines and brt services to provide alternative means of transportation through and to the area far in excess of the former Expressway the last true Urban Subway in Seoul we need to talk about is the shin bandang line the project is technically speaking a Suburban line but given its highly Urban character I've decided to include it here the root is a fully automated 33 kilometer 16 station Express Subway given its wide station spacing and unusually high top speed of 90 kilometers per hour starting in Gundam and running South through a mountain past two towns south of Seoul entirely underground short of its Southern Terminus we're leaving congestion on other transport links the line is electrified at 25 kilovolts AC and it currently uses six car trains though the stations like many in the city are future proof to accommodate up to 10 car train now if you enjoy this video and want to see more like it make sure you're subscribe to the channel turn on notifications like the video and consider supporting me on patreon every bit helps next up we have the Incheon Subway which has two very different lines the subway plays a similar role for Incheon SD Soul Metro does for Seoul but it's rather Limited in size meaning other Urban and Suburban lines pick up much of the slack in this part of the region interum Line 1 uses eight car subway trains which are narrower than those used on Seoul Metro on a mostly underground north-south alignment which swings Northwest to the southern end to serve songdo meanwhile line 2 uses two-car automated trains with Talus signaling powered by a 750 volt DC third rail akin to Vancouver's Canada Line the root swings West at its North End and East at the South End forming a giant s with a number of elevated sections and connects to line one at Incheon City Hall both lines are surrounded by crazy high density tower development and go through some areas that you might not expect to see at Metro like industrial districts both lines are linked to line 1 and line 7 of the sole Metro the widest reaching rail network in the region is most certainly the Suburban lines that crisscross Seoul and generally have wide gaps between stations as well as different service levels such as Express trains because these routes are built with AC electrification and Mainline standards Freight and perhaps more importantly Intercity trains such as the high-speed KTX can operate over them meaning they function a lot like new build versions of these Suburban sections of metro line 1. not only connecting urban areas but also providing a link for inter-city services from further afield the first route I'll talk about is the through running junkie Jung and line which is a total of 134 kilometers long with 57 stations running from the far Northwest the zhangi part to the east the Jung and part the line runs so far Northwest that there's actually a shuttle to dorsan station near the demilitarized zone with North Korea heading into the city from the north tracks go into a four-track tunnel part of which was built cut in cover with a linear Park on top of it and at the Eastern end of the tunnel are connections used for Access by infrequent services to Seoul station heading further south and east trexfalled mihan with stops at yongsan and chongyang lots of Express Services operate with speeds of up to 110 kilometers per hour trains run Express on one of the two lines before turning local as they continue across the city and are eight cars long next up is the suen bundang line which runs 105 kilometers with 63 stations forming a gigantic Southern U around the Seoul metropolitan area the route was created by combining the previously separate suun and bun bang lines the former being Suburban in nature and the latter being much more urban in the west the line begins from Incheon and a connection with metro line 1 before heading south passing near but not really through songdo despite having a station named after it from here the line goes above ground heading east through a shared section of tracks with line 4 of the Seoul Metro some sections of this Southern portion of the route are in cut and covered tunnels with parks on top as with the section on the gyeong e-line this really stands out because despite being Suburban area's 30 kilometers from Central sold these sections and neighborhoods look and act a lot like urban areas with the subway and can frankly be found on all manner of suburban lines and soul attributable both to the pretty well considered planning which lets tunnels travel under roads and be built cut in cover as well as very low construction costs even when that can't be done following the mostly above ground Southern section the line turns North to run through yangan to suse station and further north to chiangyangi express forces do run on the line but they tend to only operate on portions of the route such as the south east and west trains are six cars long and can run at up to 100 kilometers per hour probably the first transitline mini ride when arriving in Seoul is the airx or airport railroad Express a 64 kilometer 14 station Suburban line that runs West from underground platforms at Seoul station on two Tracks Of The Four Track tunnel used by the gyang and line before popping above ground to cross the Han then diving into another underground station at kimpo airport before traveling further west above ground to Incheon Airport there are two services that run on the air X line which like all other Suburban lines is electrified at 25 kilovolts AC one is a Non-Stop Soul station to Incheon Airport Express including in-town check-in as with Hong Kong's MTR and another is a slower commuter service which makes all stops the six car trains on the route max out at 110 kilometers per hour though plans call for increasing speeds to up to 150 kilometers per hour in the future like with other Suburban Lines by providing a 25 kilovolt electrified line out to the airport the air X actually enabled KTX high speed services to run for a time but unfortunately these Services were cut due to low ridership that being said that high-speed Services may use the Suburban lines is absolutely included in the calculus of their planning the young Chun line runs a total of 80 kilometers to chinchan Northeast of Seoul on a line with numerous very impressive Bridges and tunnels navigating the mountains and is rather unique in that its services generally terminate in central Seoul rather than through operating services online include the regional ITX with a top speed of 180 kilometers per hour and the alignment truly does feel more like a high-speed Intercity line than Suburban or even Regional Rail that being said eight car local trains do operate frequently though with most of them terminating some distance from Central Seoul forcing a transfer onto the Metro or other Regional trains for onward Journeys this is due to a lack of core capacity in the city's rail network an issue which will be addressed later as it turns out there are even more regionally oriented lines that do not connect to Central Soul at all these generally play the role of being a conduit for longer distance Regional and high speed services but as the Suburban Network expands Services can also interoperate between the various lines all built to permit of Mainline standards The gyung gung line has a Original Soul segment that runs 54 kilometers Southeast from a connection to the shin bun dang and Sue and Bun dang lines to the city of kyoju mostly above ground but in tunnels as it passes under a number of mountains and Hills there are 18 stations total often placed in these short sections of track between tunnels as with the gyeongchund line the top speed of the line for urban service is 110 kilometers per hour and trains are four cars long though like most of the original and Suburban lines the infrastructure is designed and built for longer trains should the need arise the last Regional route is this yoheline which runs north south through the west of the region almost entirely Underground on a 40 kilometer 21 station route from the south of Incheon to the Northeast through Gimpo Airport and north degak on the gyung E Line you can see the consideration of high-speed trains in some of the infrastructure including wonky platform screen doors which needed to be designed to be usable by multiple train types and in some cases additional tracks are even provided to allow a bypass for Freight this route is the beginning of what could be a suun bundang line style u but to the north of Seoul effectively forming a giant Loop through these suburbs akin to line 2 in the center city the line has a top speed of 110 kilometers per hour and currently runs four card trains the last class of rail Services we need to talk about are the various people mover and light Metro lines throughout Seoul these typically connect outlying towns or major campuses to the existing Urban rail network but increasingly they're being built to better connect Central dense areas with Hillside areas that would otherwise be hard to navigate for a large train all these lines are driverless though they use different train Technologies and systems have been built by various cities and even private Transit operators the first of these routes is the 10 station 24 kilometer gimbal Gold Line which is surprise surprise a route that serves the Gimpo area with two-car steel wheel trains powered by 750 volt DC third rail power the route starts from Gimpo Airport and heads Northwest virtually entirely Underground the celium line is an 8 kilometer 11 station entirely underground line that travels north south through dense areas of central Seoul South of ioeto adding even more Subway coverage in this area trains are powered by a 750 volt DC third rail but are a rubber tired people mover from Korean Industrial company wujin the elrt is not actually an LRT instead it's an 11 kilometer long 13 station automated light metro line powered by a 750 volt DC third rail with lrt-like articulated rail cars which runs north south from North Central Seoul into the hills somewhat like the celium line it also has a fully underground Depot at its northern end which is a first for Korea and frankly necessitated by the harsh Landscapes and dense environments that the entire line travels through because you know you aren't cool if your city doesn't have a Vancouver SkyTrain type linear induction motor train line Sole and more specifically the outlying area of yongan has the young and everline a 750 volt DC third rail powered line using a SkyTrain technology and even the SkyTrain door tone which operates wide one-car trains on an almost entirely elevated alignment East from the suunpun dang line and then North through the hills to a terminal near everland theme park the last of the operating light metros is the Uline an 11 kilometer 16 station valve 208 route that connects the city of wijong bull to Seoul line one sort of like the young and everline this route is entirely elevated now you'll notice I said operating because there technically is one more line these six kilometer six station Incheon Airport maglev that uses two-car Urban maglev trains manufactured by Hyundai rodem maker of almost every single train mentioned in this video which are pulled Along by linear induction Motors and powered by a 1500 volt DC third rail the mega glove has been closed for some time but it's set to reopen in 2024 but only really as an attraction the route connects some of the airport amenities at intron International to the terminal itself now if that sounded like a lot that's because it is Seoul already has over 20 Urban Rail lines and it's building even more so let's race through them the biggest project coming to Seoul and the one that will likely change the world of urban rail transportation in the same way the Paris rer did some 50 years ago is the GTX or great train express high-speed regional rail network the idea of GTX is to provide a deep underground Regional Express Network akin to the rer but with average speeds of 100 kilometers per hour and top speeds around 160 kilometers per hour and while the Paris rer through operates on two Legacy Suburban Rail lines the GTX will through run onto high speed and modern Regional train lines allowing for lightning fast travel and while many individual high-speed Regional lines are being built in other cities in Asia like Delhi Shenzhen and Chengdu no city with the possible exception of Guangzhou seems to be building as cohesive of an overall Network GTX will have three lines connecting at three points in central Seoul to form a triangle transfer at Seoul station Samsung and chiangyangi gtxa will run from kintex the Korean International Exhibition Center and unjong in the Northwest to Seoul station Samsung and suseo before continuing South on these same tracks used by SRT high-speed trains into that station gtxp will travel from songdo in the southwest through Incheon to yowido yongsan Seoul station and chianganini before through running East onto the gyong Chun line which as you might recall has to terminate some of its trains outside of central Seoul because of a lack of core capacity the GTX should fix this problem the last Full Line will be the gtxc which will run from diok Jong on line 1 South and Samsung before heading Southwest on top of the GTX Seoul is building several other new Urban Rail lines these include the wearya line which is seoul's first actual tram line from the end of metroline 5 to the Southwest in two branches connecting to Lion 8 and this suunpun bang lines to some extent it feels like this light is being built because yep Hyundai Rotom now builds trams including for Edmund the dongbuk line which is a new north south elrt style light metro line from Wang chimney to the North paralleling Line 4 for much of its length line which is a new Suburban Rail Line Traveling Southwest from Seoul station to year Ido before connecting with line 1 at Guam nyong and connecting to and through operating with the SEO hay line and there are even more lines which we don't have time to cover existing Lions will also be expanded line one will go further north with line upgrades happening on its current Northern end meanwhile the seal hay line will be extended even further north along the gyeong e-line to ilsan inch online 1 will be extended North to Gimpo and line 8 will also be finally extended north crossing the Han and connecting to several Suburban Rail lines line 7 and 9 will also get Northern extensions up to the RX and the Uline and line 5 respectively and finally the gyeonggang line will be extended further west in the direction of Incheon further augmenting the sun dang line if that felt like a lot it's because well it is soul already has well over 700 Rapid Transit stations and is building more every year in what is one of the most impressive and expansive Urban rail development programs in the world and unlike other Asian mega cities like Shanghai the planning actually feels really coherent and the city actually finally has a relatively young Regional planning agency that had been discussed for decades prior with heavy Metro serving dense urban areas Suburban rail linking areas together and feeding longer distance services while automated Metro fills the gaps watch out Tokyo because Seoul is coming now if you've made it to the end of the video you must be at least a little bit interested in how the world's transit systems work and enjoy learning about public transit infrastructure in depth and if you're curious about how to get started with creating educational stories and projects in an engaging way or just telling your friends and family about what you've just learned about seoul's transit system without them drifting off to sleep I'd recommend Simon Clark's turn data into stories class to help you with creative storytelling about the facts and data that interest you and you can watch it right now as part of nebula classes which now comes free as part of your nebula-based subscription nebula is the streaming platform owned by me and my Creator friends featuring over 14 000 titles that you can watch ad free including exclusive and Early Access videos from myself as well as not just bikes City nerd and City beautiful this is one of the best ways you can support my channel and my content as a whole and now you can get a nebulous subscription for as low as 2.50 a month or 30 dollars annually so go check out nebula at nebula.tv RM Transit or click the link in the description right now [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: RMTransit

Views: 49,732

Keywords: transit, transportation, rail, railway, railfan, public transit, public transport, public transportation, train, subway, metro, underground, rail transport, urban planning, seoul, korea, south kroea, seoul subway, seoul metropolitan subway, seoul metro, korail

Id: XNXIErc3S8o

Length: 28min 33sec (1713 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 12 2023