Seoul's push to move up subway operation hours by 30 minutes triggers criticism

Commuters pay for a ride at a subway station in Seoul, April 29. Yonhap

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is facing criticism from all three labor unions of subway operator Seoul Metro for pushing operating hours up by 30 minutes to 5 a.m. beginning as early as August.

The groups noted that the city, citing an aim to enhance convenience for early commuters, is proceeding with the change without a proper labor-management agreement or traffic demand analysis.

“The subway is not a political tool for the Seoul city government,” the first union of the subway operator Seoul Metro said in a statement Thursday. “Stop enforcing the operating hour adjustment excluding labor-management agreements.”

“The first adjustment of time should be dealt with a general review of the late-night extended operation, along with the diagnosis of the policy effectiveness, such as passenger demand,” the group said, “It is a matter of considerable changes in the overall work, such as train operation, late-night facility, metro repair and inspection and station safety management, so it needs to be carefully reviewed in various ways.”

The second union also criticized the plan.

“If the city government cares so much about the convenience of the transport for the vulnerable, why has it been so harsh about the transportation convenience for the disability advocacy group?” the group said, referring to the city’s hostile reaction towards disability rights activists over the ongoing subway-riding protests.

“We call for a review of unilateral train operation adjustment and abolition of extended service,” the group said.

The third union, consisting of millennials and Gen Zers, said, “There was no proper analysis of the transportation demand to advance operation hours by 30 minutes, and the city government only gives emotional reasons for early morning workers,” calling the change “an unnecessary waste of workforce and energy that will worsen the company’s already deficit-ridden financial situation.”

In response, the city government countered that its traffic demand analysis showed that moving up train operations by 30 minutes would allow more people to ride the subway.

According to the city, some 23,087 people are expected to ride the subway from 5 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. in Seoul.

Commuters pay for a ride at a subway station in Seoul, April 20. Yonhap

The calculation is based on substituting the proportion of subway riders, 71 percent, of the total number of passengers between 5:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. to the time slot between 5:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., when the total number of passengers mount to 32,520.

Currently, 6,986 people ride the subway from 12:30 a.m. to 1 a.m., and the city explained that the number of subway users is more than three times higher during the early hours.

Also, those who cannot catch the subway at late hours due to operation hour adjustments can ride regular city buses or late-night buses, the city added.

The adjustment plan has drawn mixed reactions from the public.

The adjustment could help early morning commuters, such as security guards and street cleaners, but would inconvenience late-night workers, such as office workers and self-employed people.

“There won’t be a waste of additional manpower and energy because we will move up operation time of not only the first train but also the last train,” the city said.

“There will be no adverse impact on the company’s finances because the time adjustment is expected to increase subway passengers,” adding that it plans to proceed with labor-management consultations, reporting to the railroad safety management system and related organizations before implementation.