How can overcrowding on subways be resolved?

Notifying passengers about the density levels of each subway car and limiting the influx of passengers at the gate could be some of the feasible ways to resolve Seoul’s extremely crowded subways during rush hour, according to experts, as the government scrambles to ease overcrowding on public transportation in the wake of the Itaewon crowd crush.

Potential dangers in crammed subways have come to attention after the Itaewon crowd disaster on the night of Oct. 29, which killed 156 people and injured numerous others.

People have become increasingly anxious over packed subways in morning and evening commutes, where they often end up squashed up against one another and unable to move. A recent analysis by SK Telecom found that the average density between Guro and Guil Stations on line 1 around 6:40 p.m. is 252 percent. This means that approximately 403 passengers were on one car, 2.5 times higher than its capacity of 160.

Against this backdrop, starting last week, the transportation authorities have been deploying officials in subway stations for crowd control. But the temporary measure, which will run until the end of the year, has garnered mixed reactions from commuters.

“The officials I’ve seen mostly stand near the stairways, which is a little disturbing, to be honest. They sometimes stop people from boarding the train if it’s too crammed, but it doesn’t seem like an effective solution in preventing overcrowding,” said a 30-year-old office worker surnamed Lee who commutes on lines 1 and 2 by transferring at Sindorim Station, one of the most infamous stops known for its overcrowding.

Yu Jeong-whon, a professor of transportation systems engineering at Ajou University, said that controlling the influx of passengers at the station gates might help ease the density of people on the platform.

“Instead of trying to manage the crowd on the platform, limiting the number of subway users passing through the gate when the density reaches a certain level on the platform seems like a better idea,” he told The Korea Times.

Yu also said that the city government should consider providing passengers with real-time information about the congestion level of each car before the train arrives at the station, which could discourage too many people from all getting into one car.

“In the long term, the authorities should try to decrease the sheer number of people using subways by offering alternative transit options, for instance, by developing more efficient bus routes,” he said.

Lee Young-joo, a professor in the department of fire and disaster prevention at the University of Seoul, viewed that there is no panacea for resolving the packed subways.

“It is highly meaningful that officials are deployed in stations for monitoring, as it gives a signal to the people that they should get on and off the train in an orderly manner. But there isn’t a simple solution to crammed subways, which is an issue in every densely populated city around the world,” he said.

For one thing, Lee suggested that the transportation authorities should manage arrival schedules on island platforms so that two trains do not arrive at the same time, which often leads to instant overcrowding on narrow platforms. An island platform is a railway where a single platform lies between two tracks.