Seoul to operate unmanned subway trains

Incheon International Airport implemented a magnetic levitation train that connects six stations earlier this year. The Korea Times File

By Kim Hyun-bin

Seoul Metro is in the final stages of implementing a driverless train system on Line 8.

Once implemented, Line 8 will offer Seoul's first fully operational unmanned trains.

For nearly half a decade, unmanned systems have been popular in private enterprises and their success is attracting the interest of public entities as well.

Unions have strongly opposed the switchover in the public sector as the unmanned systems drastically reduce jobs.

“Driverless trains and smart stations are a threat to public safety and inevitably reduce jobs,” the Seoul Metro union said. “They need to stop unmanned operations and hire more safety personnel.”

The driverless train system automatically operates a subway train and controls the departures, stops and opening and closing of doors without human supervision. Unmanned trains have been tested three times so far this month on Line 8 and there are plans to conduct a fourth test on July 5. Smart Stations involve an intelligent Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) that covers all blind spots and allows workers to control the operation of several stations at once. The system was first operated Thursday at Gunja Station in Seoul.

Smart stations alone have a budget of 17.1 billion won ($15.2 million) for this year, and by 2022 200 billion won will be spent on them, which the union claims is an alternative option to hiring workers.

“From a corporate point of view unmanned systems' initial costs could be a burden but later could drastically reduce labor costs,” said Lim Hyung-suk, director of labor at the Seoul Metro union. “The company is willing to invest hundreds of billions of won to reduce personnel costs in the future.”

Since 2013, Seoul Metro has been reviewing implementation of unmanned operation systems. Back then, McKinsey Korea, a consulting firm, estimated that when gradually implementing driverless trains starting on Line 8 in 2022, Line 6 in 2026 and in Line 7 by 2029, it would save around 60 billion won by 2030. However, many passengers are worried about the safety of fully unmanned subway trains. This is the reason why the city government chose to ensure an engineer has to be present at all times.

Many private businesses have already implemented unmanned systems; they have been quite prevalent in fast food restaurants around the nation, where they take orders from customers. Many parking lots have also implemented a payment machine that takes in the fees without any human intervention.

“Artificial intelligence started to expand five years ago, and since then 29 out of 35 OECD countries have seen a reduction of employment,” said Huh Jae-jun, senior researcher at the Korea Labor Institute.

Many experts are calling on the government to help workers who might be laid off due to further artificial intelligence advancements.

“One of the goals for a public entity is creating jobs so they should make a program to help employers switch to another profession,” said Sul Dong-hoon, a social studies professor at Chonbuk National University.