Seoul Will Have A New Subway, Equipped With Free Chargers And Spacious Seats For Pregnant Women

Illustration of passengers on the Seoul Metro. (Wikimedia Commons/Marc Smith)

JAKARTA - Seoul, South Korea's subway operator will introduce new trains equipped with free cell phone chargers and wider seats for pregnant women starting later this month, officials said Friday.

Seoul Metro, operator of the capital's sprawling subway system, will operate five new trains of 40 passenger cars on Line 5 starting this month. And add another 20 trains to the line by the end of the year, officials said.

Citing the Korea Times Feb. 4, the new train makes less noise and offers wireless phone chargers for the first time, among Seoul subways.

A total of eight chargers will be installed in four passenger carriages per train, two in the middle and two with a special place for wheelchairs.

The upgraded train will also offer a more comfortable ride by increasing the width of each seat to 48 centimeters from 43.5 cm while making the seven-seater section six seats.

Not only that, a special seat for pregnant women, which is pink, will be bigger than before with a width that reaches 53 cm.

Seoul Metro also decided to install four air quality enhancement devices per passenger carriage, saying the move could reduce fine dust levels inside carriages by an average of 21.2 percent.

Please note, Seoul Metro began replacing old subways with new ones starting from Line 2 in 2014. The renovation project for the line will be completed this year, and the operator plans to also make changes to the old trains operating on Line 4 and Line 8. .

The operator is in charge of most lines from 1-9 on the Seoul Metropolitan Subway system.