The Seoul Transportation Corporation's labor union has agreed to the Seoul Metropolitan Government's policy of extending the subway operation by one hour during the late night hours.
The union of the Seoul Metro, which operates the Seoul subway, said in a press release on the 28th that it had reached an agreement with the city of Seoul yesterday to extend the weekday train service hours from 00:00 to 1am.
Accordingly, the operating hours of Seoul Metro Lines 2 and 6, 7, and 8 will be adjusted sequentially after June 1.
The late-night extension service of Lines 1, 3, and 4, jointly operated with KORAIL, will be promoted from around August after consultation, and the implementation time for Line 5 will be determined according to the approval schedule from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
The union said it was regrettable that it did not come up with a fundamental support plan for the financial crisis of the Seoul subway, but said that it is urgently needed to resolve the inconvenience of citizens caused by the late-night traffic crisis, so they will cooperate with the city in a big way.
With this agreement, Seoul Transportation Corporation decided to refill the quota that had been reduced due to the abolition of late-night extended service and to hire night maintenance personnel and crew members.
Earlier this month, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced earlier this month that it would resume the extended late-night subway operation after two years as one of the countermeasures to the increase in demand for late-night transportation such as taxis after the lifting of social distancing.
(Photo = Yonhap News)