How to Ride the Seoul Subway (and Understand the Announcements)

Paying: Card, Single Ticket, or Tourist Pass

The easiest way is a transit card such as T-money, which you can buy and top up at convenience stores — the same card works on buses and in taxis. You tap it at the gate when you enter and again when you leave, because the fare depends on how far you travel.

Fares are as of September 2026 (the last increase was June 2025). You still can't tap a foreign Visa or Mastercard at the gates — Seoul plans to add card readers to the gates on Lines 1–8 in 2027. Since March 2026, though, 440 ticket machines at 273 stations on Lines 1–8 accept foreign credit cards for single tickets, tourist passes and card top-ups, with a fee of about 3.7%. The tourist pass is sold at those machines and at convenience stores near stations.

See also: Asking for directions in Korean

Finding Your Way: Lines, Numbers and Exits

Why bother with numbers? If you can't read a station name yet, the number on the map, the platform sign and the entrance is the same everywhere — matching 743 is easier than matching 신풍.

Every line has a color and a number (1호선 is Line 1, 2호선 is Line 2), and every station has a station number shown on the signs. You'll hear the subway called both 지하철 and 전철 — the 전 in 전철 is "electric" (電, the electricity root). Big stations have many numbered exits (출구) that can come out blocks apart, so the exit number matters as much as the station: directions in Korea are given as "종각역 4번 출구" (Jonggak Station, exit 4), like the start of our Jongno walk. Some station names also carry a landmark in brackets, such as 광화문(세종문화회관) at Gwanghwamun Square. Naver Map and KakaoMap tell you the best exit for your destination; that's what most people in Korea use.

Changing lines inside a station usually doesn't need a new tap — you follow the transfer signs (갈아타는 곳) to the other platform and tap only when you finally leave. The exception is a few transfers between lines run by different operators, which have a transfer gate where you tap once more.

The signs use plain words — 타는 곳, 나가는 곳, 갈아타는 곳 — while announcements and fare notices use the formal Sino-Korean ones like 승강장 and 환승. It's worth knowing both.

Not every exit has an escalator, and stairs can be long. More and more stations are adding street-level elevators like the one above for people who have trouble with stairs, so it's worth looking for the elevator sign (엘리베이터) — map apps usually mark which exit has one.

On the Train: Doors and Announcements

Doors open by themselves at every station — there's no button to press, unlike some trains in other countries. What changes from station to station is the side: sometimes the doors on your left open, sometimes the right. Before each stop, the announcement gives the station name and the door side, in Korean and then English (major stations add Chinese and Japanese).

Seats to Leave Empty

• 교통약자석 — the seats at both ends of each car are for older people, people with disabilities, and others who need them. They're usually left empty. Nobody will tell you off for sitting there, but you may get looks.
• 임산부 배려석 — the pink seats, two per car at the ends of the long middle benches, are for pregnant passengers. Seoul runs a campaign asking riders to keep them empty, even when the train is busy.
• Drinking water or a drink on the train is fine. From bread, sandwiches or gimbap onward — anything that counts as eating — you may get looks.

Useful Things to Say

For the rest of the trip, see how to ride a bus in Seoul, asking for directions, and — if you've missed the last train — taxi phrases. Last trains finish around 1 a.m. on weekdays and around midnight on weekends and holidays, but the last one from your station can leave well before that, so check the app. Careful with the word "subway" itself: in Korean it's 지하철, while 서브웨이 is the sandwich chain.

Related Knowledge

• How to ride a bus in Seoul
• Asking for directions in Korean
• Taxi Korean phrases for after the last train
• Subway the sandwich chain — not the train