By Kim Rahn
Foreign passengers on subway trains will be told what is happening when sirens suddenly sound at stations through announcements on civil defense drills or emergencies in English, Chinese and Japanese.
Seoul Metro, which operates lines No. 1 to 4, said Wednesday that it has prepared announcements for emergencies and drills so that foreign passengers can be notified of developing situations.
It will begin the service around March when the country starts civil defense exercises.
“Koreans are familiar with sirens for drills as we’ve experienced them since we were young. But foreigners, especially tourists who barely know about such exercises, may get confused when hearing sirens, because comments are made only in Korean. So we’ll make them in other languages before sounding the siren,” an official of the subway operator said.
The foreign language service covers nine situations, including civil defense exercises and drills against terrorist attacks, fires, blackouts and train accidents.
In a civil defense drill that takes place every month, people on the street are supposed to take shelter at subway stations ― not every month but three or four times a year. In special drills against disasters, subway operations are sometimes halted, the official said.
“For a drill, we’ll announce that we are having a regular exercise and there is no need to panic. For a real accident or other emergencies, we’ll say that the situation is real and that passengers need to follow the guidelines of the subway staff,” he said.
For example, before a civil defense exercise passengers will hear: “Can we have your attention, please. We will shortly begin a civil defense exercise for the safety of subway passengers at this station. This is a drill, and the subway will operate as scheduled. Thank you.”
And the script after the drill is: “Can we have your attention, please. The civil defense exercise has been completed. Thank you for your cooperation with the drill. The subway will operate as scheduled. Thank you.”
The official said that the introduction of the foreign-language service reflects a growing number of incoming tourists, whose annual total is quickly reaching about 10 million.
“Many of them use subways when traveling in the capital area and we need to come up with additional measures to help them travel here in comfort,” the official said.