Korea: Trains and subway

If you are going to travel in Korea, you will surely use the subway or the train and you will be right: this is really a very convenient way to reach many places (Incheon Airport, Suwon fortress, Seoul touristic places, Gangnam, Itaewon, Hongdae, Jimjilbang in Yongsan...). Here are some informations about these infrastructures:

• The incheon airport express train: it costs around 10.000 won for one way and 45 minutes between the airport and Seoul station (next to the city hall, so really in the middle of the city). You can easily find this line in the airport and in Seoul Station: just use automatic machine (with english language available) to buy your ticket! 

• The subway: several lines can be used to travel inside and around Seoul. Usually, you will have to wait from 3 to 5 minutes between each train in Seoul, and sometimes more than 10 minutes outside Seoul. The subway is quite new, large, comfortable and warm in winter. However, it's really hard to get a seat and koreans don't hesitate to push you to enter or leave the train (which personaly really makes me angry sometimes). The cost is around 1300 won for one way. You can purchase a one way card for each travel (you will find automatic machines in english at each station, so you can select your destination, and pay something like 2000 won (you will have 500 won of deposit for the card that you can get back at every station with a deposit refund machine). Another way (far more convenient if you stay more than 3 days), is to go to a convenient store (like a seven/eleven that you can find almost every where in Korea), and buy a T-money card (cheap, cost around 2000 won), a put money on it (like 20.000 won for example). The advantage is that you will get reduction on every travels and you won't have any deposit. In any case, don't forget to badge when you enter and leave the subway :)

 

• Trains: You can use normal trains to reach many cities (visiting Suwon Fortress for example). The two main kind of normal trains in Korea are the Mugunghwa and the Saemaeul. These trains are for long distances and faster than the subway. You will have different kind of seats inside depending on the price you are ready to pay. You can also buy standing ticket if you are late, but price would be almost the same. If you go to the bar wagon you will really feel in another place! Prices are a bit more expensive than subway, but are still cheap. On standard destinations, you will usually have one train every 40 minutes.

• The KTX: If you want to reach Busan or far away cities, the KTX will be the best option. It s an high speed train (almost the same than the french TGV) which is fast but also expensive comparing to the other kind of trains. However, service is better and seats quite comfortable. 

 

To get maps and more detailed informations, you can visit this page :)