The Seoul metro feels like a metaphore for the city itself, at least the city we’ve experienced so far. Clean, sensible, inviting.
My anchor point for a mass transit experience is NYC (plus a little bit of Washington DC, Boston, and the Netherlands long ago), and here’s how Seoul’s metro gobsmacked me, both in comparison to NYC and beyond:
-Clean. No strange fluids leaking from above, no sticky floors. No trash (not a single piece), and inexplicably no trash cans either. No graffiti. Handrails in the cars feel…. clean!
-Safe. Glass doors keep you (and your children) from even dreaming of meeting your demise by train strike, either ala House of Cards, or your own foolishness. No beckoning third rail.
-No beggars. No buskers either. Since this is Seoul (see previous postings) there are foodcarts, and you can buy socks, as well as the usual essentials like coffee.
-It’s easy to navigate, cheap, miltilingual (station stops and arrival announcements, and all signage are in Korean and English, some stops have Chinese thrown in as well). They even play cute music to get your attention before announcing an arriving train or ststion. Just don’t dance to it or your kids will prod you stop. .
Well-used, but avoiding the feeling of decay. Modern. We feel like masters after two days. Even the bathrooms feel safe, if somewhat less pristine. And we are travelling with kids. When buying a single trip card from a vending machine you pay fare plus a card deposit (about 50 cents). Scan your way out at your destination and a robo-voice reminds you to redeem your deposit. You do this at another vending machine, and just like that you’ve recycled your “disposable” card.
It’s another example, perhaps, of Korea the emerging, surging nation, that by comparison makes the USA feel old, in decay, out of touch.
First it was tap water that I fell in love with, now the metro? This must be a midlife travel romance…
Home on the Roam 
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