Starting on the 15th of this month, if you stamp your senior citizen card at the gate at some subway stations in Seoul, you will hear a voice saying, “Seniors, be well.” The Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Transportation Corporation plan to stop free rides on the subway through voice transmission.
The Seoul Transportation Corporation announced on the 12th that it will pilot the voice guidance transmission project from the 15th. The pilot project targets 10 stations with a large number of passengers, including Seoul Station, Gangnam Station, Sindorim Station, Gwanghwamun Station, Bus Rapid Terminal Station, Hyehwa Station, Kachisan Station, Eungam Station, Gasan Digital Complex Station, and Amsa.
Currently, when a preferential card is tagged at the gate, only the color of each ticket type is displayed on the LED gate, so only station staff can identify whether a journey has been illegal or not. However, when word is transmitted, it is believed that it will be useful to prevent illegal riding as it will be easy for the person and nearby citizens to know if they are eligible for preferential treatment.
This project was proposed by Representative Lee Byeong-yoon (People’s Power Dongdaemun 1) at the 318th work report of the City Transportation Office Special Session of the Seoul Metropolitan Council last April. According to Congressman Lee, a total of 173,295 illegal subway rides were caught between 2020 and April of this year. Among them, 120,444 cases of fraudulent use of preferential cards accounted for 69.5% of the total. In particular, after the distancing measures due to the corona were lifted, the number of illegal rides with preferential cards in 2022 was 46,083, with the total number of illegal winners increasing by 8% to 77.5%.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Transportation Corporation reduced irregular rides after the pilot operation of the ▲Seoul/Gyeonggi Elderly Transportation Card ▲disposable senior substitute card ▲permanent foreign senior resident substitute card, which accounts for the largest percentage of preferential cards, for three It intends to comprehensively judge the effectiveness, citizen response, and frequency of civil complaints and decide whether it should be expanded within this year at the earliest.
Representative Lee said, “If the content of the audio is not offensive to consumers, I expect that citizens will also respond positively.”
