::A Geek in Korea::

When I first arrived in Korea in 2001, work begun on the Daejeon subway system. It was to link the eastern and western parts of the city. The first part of the line was finished in 2006, and one of the exits was behind our old apartment building. We moved later in 2006.

While we were still on the subway line, we were two stops short of where the previous work had completed. They built and completed half the subway, then build the rest of the subway line and then connected them. We had been waiting for this for a while, but they finally opened today.

My wife and I used to ride in a taxi when I went to work, then she would take the subway from there to go to her job. Now we can simply walk a block from our apartment and both go to work easily. This is a huge improvement, as it means we save money, as well as not having to catch a taxi or a bus when it rains or is cold.

The subway system in Daejeon hasn’t been that popular since it didn’t connect all the places on the line, but today it was packed solid both times I used it. It might have been because they were actively promoting it, and were offering free coffee and prizes. There were a lot of old people riding for the first time, and there were helpers explaining how the token system worked. I even ran into one of my wife’s coworkers on the way home.

We stand to save a lot of money and time with this new subway expansion. I’m very pleased by having easy access to the subway. It’s been a long time coming.