10 tips about Korea

1. You can eat and drink in the subway
2. Many of the subway stations have food /drink vending machines or even take-away food outlets
3. Every subway station has a toilet in it
4. Outside the toilet of every station,  there is a vending machine you can purchase sanitary napkins and condoms from
5. There are 17 different Lines on the Seoul Metropolitan subway, each coded in a different color.
6. Many of the seats in the trains are cushion-based
7. Every station has an emergency cabinet like this.
8. Each cabin is separated from the next by glass doors like this
9. Handicapped seats
10. There are overhead compartments to put your luggage like this.
11. There are animated simulations on the electronic signboards to show the trains proximity to the station
12. Train.door on your right

How to know what are the places near a subway station using ExploreMetro - [Pre-Korea Trip Research (Transport) ]

 

http://seoul.exploremetro.com/en/

I came across this really useful web application (which is also available as mobile apps) today.

What this site does is this:

1. First, the app would ask you to select which city you would be visiting
2. Based on the city you choose, it displays a map of the subway/ metro/ MTR / MRT (different places call it different names)of the city you have entered.  Each station stop is represented by a dot on the map.
3. You are then allowed to click on the dot that represents the station you wish to explore.
4. Upon clicking the desired dot/ station, the app would prompt you if you would like to plan your route or know about the first/ last trains at that stop.
5. If you choose “Plan Your Route”, it then prompts you for your destination which you will indicate by clicking on the dot on the map that represents the destination station.
6. And, tada, the app will then present you with the estimated time to travel to your destination and the Line you should take.

I do think this is a rather user-friendly app compared to the one that the SMRT Korea one offers. The problem is that it does not offer the fare like SMRT Korea.

But there is another value-add to this app. It allows you to display the photos that are taken near the selected station. You can do this by first clicking on the dot of the station, then click on the station name when the dialog box like the one below appears, and next, you will be shown a page that looks like the one right at the bottom of this blog entry.

Pretty cool feature which I think I will be using a lot of it myself.

Where to download Seoul Subway Map [My Pre-Korea Trip Research (Transport)]

 

You can download a full-sized 2560x1926px map from the SMRT Korea website here!

http://www.smrt.co.kr/program/cyberStation/main2.jsp?lang=e

Here’s one that I downloaded from this website just yesterday (08 Jun 2014)

Airport shuttle bus 6002 from Incheon Airport to Sinseol-Dong [Pre-Korea Trip Research (Transport) ]

 

For our upcoming trip to Korea, we will be staying in an apartment that is a 5 minutes walk from the Sinseol-Dong Subway Station.

So one of the ways we can travel down to our accommodation is to take the Airport Limousine service 6002.

The route information is available at this site: http://www.airportlimousine.co.kr/route/routee03.htm and from what I have researched on Internet, you would need about 80-90 minutes and pass by about 17 stops on the 6002 bus route before reaching Sinseol-Dong. The cost of the trip would be 10,000 KWR ($12.50 SGD or $9.85 USD) per person.

It is double the cost of taking the AREX + Seoul Subway, which means if we choose the AREX method, for our family of 4 persons, we would save about $26.00 SGD. The time to travel seems about the same or even lesser for the AREX too though the advantage of using the Airport Limousine is that we would be able to sit throughout the whole bus journey, compared to the AREX where I am not sure if we would need to stand?

Taking the AREX from Incheon Airport to Sinseol-Dong [Pre-Korea Trip Research (Transport) ]

 

For our upcoming trip to Korea, we will be staying in an apartment that is a 5 minutes walk from the Sinseol-Dong Subway Station.

Sinseol-Dong is a station that is connected to both the Lines 1 and Lines 2 of the Seoul Subway network. From the map below, you can see that the stations on Line 1 are in navy blue while the stations on Line 2 are in green.

So one of the ways we can travel down to Sinseol-Dong is via the AREX (Airport Railroad Express).

One of the most important websites you must definitely bookmark if you are taking the AREX is the official AREX website at http://english.arex.or.kr/jsp/eng/main.jsp

The website will provide you useful information like the Map of the AREX Line, the timetable of the train schedules, the fare you need to pay and also allows you to book tickets online!

To get to Sinseol-Dong Subway from the Incheon Airport, one would need to board the train at A10 Incheon International Airport Station, alight at Seoul Main Station to transfer to Line 1 of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway and then travel about 7 stations to alight at the Sinseol-Dong Subway Station.

The AREX fare to travel from Incheon Airport to Seoul Station will cost 3,950 KWR and the journey will take about 53 minutes.

Also available at the website is the arrival times of the AREX trains at different times of the day.  We would be arriving around 8 am in the morning at the airport, so I have captured the timings of the AREX trains around that timeslot.

As you can see, there is an all-stops train at 08:03 am, an express one at 8:10 am, all-stops trains at 08:17am, 08:27 am and so on. The express train heads straight for Seoul Station without stopping at the other 8 stations, and shaves about 10 minutes off the entire journey as a result.

You can find the AREX train timings at this page http://english.arex.or.kr/jsp/eng/information/use_information.jsp

Next, let’s check out how much time is needed to travel from Seoul Station to the Sinseol-Dong Subway Station.

You can click on the link below which will bring you to the page that contains the answer!
http://www.smrt.co.kr/program/cyberStation/main2.jsp?lang=e&sname2=Seoul+Station&stcd2=0150&sname3=Sinseol-dong&stcd3=0156&x=141&y=20

From the estimates given, It will take about 15 minutes and if you get the T-Money TransitCard that is widely used in Korea, the fare would be 1,050 KWR.

So adding the fare for the AREX train (3,950 KWR) + the are for the Subway (1050 KWR), that will cost a total of 5,000 KWR.
The total time to travel would be 53 minutes + 13 minutes = 66 minutes or slightly more than an hour.

Shortest Route Finder website from SMRT Korea [Pre-Korea Trip Research (Transport)]

It's just three days away from our first family vacation to Korea and I have just gotten started on researching the transport options there!

Found this useful website from the Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation that allows you to key in a place of departure and destination, and they will list the travel route for you including the travel time and fare.

http://www.smrt.co.kr/program/cyberStation/main2.jsp?lang=e