Using the subway

It is very easy to use the subway in Seoul, especially as all the signs and announcements are in English as well as Korean.

A subway map and route search can be found in English at the Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transport Corporation website or SMRT for short. Bus routes, timetables and maps in English can be found on the Korean Public Transportation Guide.

My nearest subway station is Songnae which is on Line 1. From Songnae, you have the choice of taking the normal subway train which stops at every station, to Seoul and beyond in one direction and to Incheon in the other. There is also a rapid train which runs from Dongincheon to Yongsan which cuts a good 15 minutes or so off the journey time from Songnae, but you have to change trains at Yongsan to get into Seoul city centre. The rapid trains run from the inner platforms and the regular trains run from the outer platforms. If travelling from Seoul to Songnae, one of the benefits of changing trains at Yongsan is that you get onto the train first and can therefore always get a seat!

The buses and subway are incredibly cheap (especially compared to the London Underground). Its costs around 60p to get from Songnae to Seoul. Last weekend I bought a T Money card, the Korean equivalent of the Oyster card. It costs 2,500 won (around £1.35) for the card and you save 100 won on each journey when you use the card. It can be used on buses and at some vending machines as well as on the subway. Cards can be bought at subway stations and are easy to top up using recharging machines at stations. You can also buy T money chips built into mobile phone attachments, watches, MP3 players and I heard that some Korean credit/debit cards have T Money chips embedded in them so that you don't have to worry about topping up.