By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Seoul's new subway line No. 9 will become operational basically with no workers to sell tickets and no manned offices at its stations. This is in line with the city's move to cut costs and raise the efficiency of the new line that will open in the first half of next year.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said Saturday that the new subway line will have a centralized management system that will help cut wage costs drastically and raise efficiency at the same time.
``Through the management reform, the city government plans to minimize personnel on the new line as well as to improve safety and services,'' Oh told reporters on a trip to European cities.
Stations on line No. 9, to be run by Seoul Metro Line 9 Corp., will not have ticket-selling manned offices. Instead, passengers will be able to purchase tickets or use their travel cards at convenience stores there.
There will be no stationmasters offices and employees will work shifts during the subway operation time, instead of being stationed for 24 hours and performing night duty, as workers on lines No. 1-8 do currently.
The corporation will also outsource some maintenance work.
A city official said that through the reform system, the subway operator will need 20 staff members per kilometer, while Seoul Metro, which runs lines No. 1-4, has 75 people. The Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation, operator of lines No. 5-8, has 44.
To secure safety, the city will establish a centralized control system and install more closed-circuit televisions. Employees will work on platforms, not waiting areas, so that they can take more immediate action in the case of accidents, the official said.
Concluding his eight-day tour made to benchmark European cities famous for high-quality design, Oh said that city design is the key to winning the competition with Shanghai, Tokyo and Singapore.
``I learned from a heating plant in Vienna that a facility shunned by citizens can be turned into a place where people enjoy to visit if a good design is incorporated,'' he said.