Seoul Transportation Corporation announced on the 11th that it has halted the review of the operation plan for Subway Line 2, which involved reducing the number of crew members from two to one. The safety verification committee recommended against implementing a single-crew system on Line 2 after considering various factors, and the corporation accepted this recommendation.
Previously, a verification committee composed of academia and railroad experts inspected Line 2 on the 2nd and expressed the opinion that it is difficult to implement a single-crew system on Line 2 because the conditions for implementation are not sufficiently secured from technical, operational, managerial, and safety aspects.
Currently, among the Seoul subway lines 1 to 8 operated by the corporation, lines 1 to 4 have a two-person crew and lines 5 to 8 have a single-person crew. This is because, before the current corporation was established in 2017, Seoul Subway Corporation (lines 1 to 4) and Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation (lines 5 to 8) operated in this manner. Unlike the subway corporation established in the 1980s, the rapid transit corporation, which was launched in the 1990s, was able to equip itself with relatively modern trains and transportation systems.
Initially, the corporation had reviewed the implementation of a single-crew system on Line 2 due to its large transport volume. Changing the duty system from two-person to single-person was considered to enable efficient personnel management.
However, the verification committee expressed concerns that there is a high risk of safety issues on Line 2 due to its transport volume and many curved platforms. The analysis of operational scenarios also revealed that the perceived risk of a single-crew system is 23 to 32.7% higher than the existing system.
Ki Kwang-hwan, head of the crew headquarters at the Seoul Transportation Corporation, noted, “Line 2 is a very congested route, and with facilities aging and many curved platforms, implementing a single-crew system requires substantial investment as a prerequisite.” He added, “As a result of considering the introduction of a single-crew system from various angles, a cautious approach to its introduction is needed under the current conditions.”