The number of incidents of people illegally riding the subway in Seoul has surpassed 180,000 since 2009, data showed Tuesday.

The data disclosed by Rep. Lee Chan-yeol revealed that passengers illegally rode the subway 183,681 times on eight subway lines during the past five years, amounting to nearly 6 billion won ($5.8 million) in lost ticket sales.

Subway Line 7 had 42,584 illegal rides for the 2009-2013 period, followed by Line 2 with 41,134 and Line 5 with 36,122.

As for methods to flouting pay, passengers bypassed the turnstiles without purchasing a metro card or illegally went through the special turnstile designed for the handicapped.

Some even used others’ metro cards, such as welfare cards for the elderly or the handicapped that offer free rides, or student discount cards.

The number of illegal subway rides tripled from about 20,000 in 2011 to 60,461 in 2013. The actual figures might be higher than the known statistics.

Rep. Lee said a total of 30,872 cases have been caught in the first half of this year in Seoul.

By Kim Da-sol (dasolkim@heraldcorp.com)