Seoul Subway
Metro · Seoul · Seoul Metro / Korail / Metro9
9 lines · 360 stations · 37 interchanges
Every line drawn through its stations. Tap a line in the legend to hide or show it.
Lines
2
Quick facts
- Operators
- Seoul's subway is a joined network run by Seoul Metro, Korail, Metro9, and other operators.
- As a visitor, the operator mostly disappears behind the map and T-money gates.
- Payment
- Use a T-money transportation card for subway, bus, many taxis, and convenience-store top-ups.
- Buy and reload it before you need it. The subway itself is easy once the card is in your pocket.
- T-moneyStored-value card
- Airport links
- Use AREX for Incheon Airport and the subway for Gimpo Airport connections.
- AREXAirport link
- Network type
- A huge metro and suburban-rail hybrid, with long through-running lines and excellent English signage.
- MetroRegional rail
Mike’s notes
Seoul is enormous, but the subway makes it feel humane. It is clean, signed in English, easy to pay for, and usually the right answer once you are in the city.
How to use it
Buy a T-money card, load it, and treat it as your transit key. The station exits matter as much as the stations themselves. A route that says "Hongik University Station" is still incomplete until you know the exit number.
That is not a minor detail. Seoul blocks can be wide, intersections can be big, and the wrong exit can turn a clean ride into a ten-minute correction walk.
Airport logic
Incheon is an AREX trip. Gimpo is closer and plugs into the subway network more directly. Once you are in the city, the subway takes over for almost every normal visitor day.
Network character
Line 2 is the loop everyone eventually learns. It gives you Hongdae, Gangnam, Jamsil, and a lot of transfer logic in one green circle. Lines 3 and 4 are useful for the old core, Myeong-dong, and north-south movement. Line 9 is the one to notice south of the Han because its faster service pattern can save real time.
Seoul's system is a regional machine, which is why some rides are longer and more commuter-rail-like than the map suggests.
Short history
1974
Line 1 opens
Seoul gets its first subway line, tied into rail corridors that make the system feel bigger than a pure city metro from the beginning.
1984
Line 2 makes the loop
Line 2 becomes the green circular line that still frames a huge amount of visitor movement: Hongdae, Gangnam, Jamsil, city universities, and transfer hubs.
1990s-2000s
The network sprawls outward
New lines and extensions push the subway well beyond the central city, making Seoul feel navigable despite its scale.
2009
Line 9 adds an express-style south-bank route
Line 9 becomes especially useful for parts of the city south of the Han, with faster stopping patterns and important airport-side connections.