Seoul Subway commuters lodged over 100,000 complaints in July about train air conditioning — saying it was either too cold or too hot — the system’s operator said Wednesday.
According to Seoul Metro’s data, a total of 108,000 complaints related to subway cars being “too hot” were recorded in July, with an average of 3,494 complaints recorded per day.
Between May and July, Seoul Metro added that it received up to 323,861 heat-related complaints from commuters, while it also received 17,883 complaints regarding subway cars being “too cold.” Over the three months, the subway operator received more than 340,000 temperature grievances.
According to Seoul Metro, temperature-related complaints have accounted for a majority of commuter grievances received by the subway operator.
From January to July, Seoul Metro received 505,148 complaints regarding its heating and cooling systems, which was 79.6 percent of all complaints filed by Seoul Metro’s call center.
The largest portion of temperature-related complaints came from passengers on Line No. 2, accounting for 39.9 percent of the total. Seoul Subway Line No. 2 has the highest daily traffic, having carried an average of 1.96 million passengers per day in 2024, according to data released by Seoul Metro in February.
With the number of temperature-related complaints increasing each year, Seoul Metro noted that the surge is “affecting their ability to respond quickly to emergencies,” such as passengers requiring urgent medical assistance.
To curb excessive complaints, Seoul Metro added that it has begun placing stickers in subway cars to inform passengers that heating and cooling temperatures are controlled automatically.
After a trial run on Line No. 8, the stickers will also be placed in Line No. 2 cars, before expanding to other lines.
lee.jungjoo@heraldcorp.com
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