Going Underground

If any megacity is going to function properly then it clearly requires affordable, integrated public transport.  In South Korea this is built around the Seoul subway system. Started in 1974 it now claims to be the worlds largest network with approx 987km of operational track in 2015, serving 2.5bn passengers per year.  By comparison the London Underground (started 111 years earlier, in 1863) totals about 402km of track, carrying only 1.17bn passengers annually.
http://www.railway-technology.com/features/featurethe-worlds-longest-metro-and-subway-systems-4144725/

But statistics aside, the differences become dazzlingly obvious when riding the systems; the Seoul subway has been planned like a mini-Metropolis; albeit leaning more towards Fritz Lange's vision than that of Siegel & Schuster. The larger stations are not just transport hubs, they are also mini-malls featuring the same shops, restaurants, banks and services that you find in the high streets above.  Moreover, many stations in downtown Seoul are linked by endless warrens of pedestrian galleries featuring everything from bars to bakeries and nachos to knickers. It is perfectly possible to roam for kilometres, haunting for hours from one station to the next, snapping up everything from blood pudding to bat food without ever having to surface into the sunlight above.  It is surely what every socially challenged Transylvanian count has been dreaming of for centuries !   

The Seoul subway - a metropolis in its own right

Not surprisingly, the infrastructure required to support this infrastructure is equally sophisticated.  There are escalators and elevators everywhere, including wheelchair lifts and and bicycle ramps on the stairs.  There are bright, clean, constantly serviced public toilets at all levels where you might be caught short.  The stations and the trains are all fully air conditioned.  Train seats are heated in winter and also steam cleaned during the summer so that as you sit down you don't soak up the ooze of damp sweat collectively deposited by the 300 passengers who sat there before you.  The concourses and carriage floors are so bright and clean that that they wouldn't look out of place in an operating theatre.  In fact if Korean men could only muster enough stubble they would doubtless be able to gaze at the floor to shave in their own reflections.

Cosy, dark and intimate - sitting toe to toe on the London Underground.
By comparison the bright, airy, spacious Seoul subway

Station platforms feature huge LCD screens which engage commuters with an endless cycle of commercials, local area information and previews of impending film releases. The downside is the somewhat lobotomising deluge of public service videos showing how to use the subway responsibly.  These are not only limited to safety tips such as how to fit a gas mask, use a fire extinguisher or evacuate through the tunnels but also rather condescending instructions on how to position your arms and legs so as not to inconvenience other passengers or how to use the escalators or your cell phone considerately.  Cynics may infer that if the state has the time to attend to such minutia then all the country's major problems must have been solved long ago........well, sadly this cannot be confirmed at the time of writing ;)

Given the huge number of daily commuters, it follows that no small number of people are needed to maintain such a large system in pristine conditions.  This is done by a mostly unseen ninja army of little old ladies and little old men who discretely pop into and out of unmarked doors and cubicles fiendishly secreted into the station walls.  The men generally fix things like ticket machines and elevators while the women attend to the cleaning.  It is a rare sight, but during off-peak hours a trained observer may spot a pair of ninjing cleaning ladies surreptitiously surfing up and down the escalators together polishing scuffs from the stainless steel bodywork, smudges from the glass partitions and hand prints from the rubber belts.  

And just to show that every idea can be improved, Seoul's ticket barrier system concept is quite possibly a new trend waiting to go global.  Aside from some older stations which still feature traditional turnstiles, most stations now feature ticket barriers which remain open by default, ie; they only snap shut in the rare event that a commuter does not have a valid ticket.  Basically this means that the barriers hardly ever operate and therefore require almost no maintenance compared with conventional barriers which open and close for every single commuter, requiring regular and costly servicing.   

Gangnam Style - ticket barriers at most subway stations remain open by default

Clearly there is a cost for such state-of-the-art infrastructure but astonishingly Seoul's commuters are not paying this via their daily fares. With few exceptions, most journeys, even from one side of town to the other (25m, 40km), are covered by a flat fee of only KRW1,350 or about $1:19 or £0:78. In fact, bus rides taken together with subway rides (as part of the same journey) are even free.

Given all of the above, it is not surprising that so many people use the subway daily. What is astonishing is how many people still insist on commuting by car.  However, that's another story .....