'Seatless car' expanded to Seoul Metro's Line 7

Commuters are seen Thursday morning in a seatless subway car that began operation on Seoul Metro's Line No.7. (Yonhap)

Subway cars without seats have been added to Line No. 7 from Thursday.

Seoul Metro announced that it removed the seats of a car on one of its Line No.7 trains on a trial basis in an attempt to alleviate congestion inside its trains during peak hours.

The move comes four months after such a car was first added to Seoul Metro’s Line No. 4 in January.

On Line No.7, the seatless subway car is deployed around 8 a.m. on weekdays, when the lane sees the highest density on the train running through Seoul Children’s Grand Park Station in eastern Seoul, Seoul Metro said.

The subway car will also be used around 6 p.m. when many people return home from work.

While most seats have been replaced with back supports attached to the car’s inside wall, 12 seats for senior citizens and those with accessibility needs remain in the car.

Seoul Metro decorated the inside of the subway car with colorful patterns, reflecting feedback from citizens that the benchless car on Line No.4 felt empty.

Removing seats reduced the density of subway cars from 166.2 percent in the fourth quarter of last year to 150.1 percent in the following quarter, and Seoul Metro plans to expand seatless cars to other lines if they find them effective on Line No.7, the company said to local media.

By Lim Jae-seong(forestjs@heraldcorp.com)