CCTV Installation on All Metropolitan Railways by Next Year... "Strengthening Crime Prevention"

Installation of CCTV on All Metropolitan Railways by Next Year
Crime Response... Securing Railway Police Patrol Personnel?

A train is stopped at the Korea Railroad Corporation Guro Vehicle Office in Guro-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

CCTV systems will be significantly expanded inside urban railway vehicles by next year.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) announced on the 22nd that it has issued corrective measures to each operating agency to install CCTV inside vehicles by next year in response to the recent frequent urban railway crimes.

On the 24th of last month and the 8th of this month, MOLIT held two meetings with urban railway operating agencies and local governments to discuss expanding CCTV coverage. Recently, together with the Korea Transportation Safety Authority, MOLIT also inspected the current status of CCTV installations inside vehicles operated by urban railway agencies.

In Seoul, about 2 billion people use urban railways annually, but except for Line 2 (98%) and Line 7 (97%), the CCTV installation rate inside vehicles on most lines is below 10%. Therefore, there have been many criticisms regarding the limitations in responding to crimes inside urban railway vehicles.

Accordingly, under Article 8, Paragraph 3 of the Railway Safety Act, MOLIT recognized the necessity of installing CCTV inside vehicles for railway safety and ordered operating agencies and local governments to expand CCTV installations as a corrective measure.

Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL), which operates metropolitan railways, originally planned to sequentially expand CCTV coverage by 2024, but has advanced this plan to install CCTV in all currently operating metropolitan railway vehicles by next year.

Metropolitan railways refer to urban railways and railroads operating across two or more cities and provinces, and vehicles confirmed for replacement in 2023?2024 are excluded from the CCTV installation target.

Six local governments including Seoul, Incheon, Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, and Daejeon also agreed on the necessity of installing CCTV inside urban railway vehicles and decided to work with MOLIT to enable each operating agency to install CCTV promptly. They will also promote institutional improvements and secure budgets.

Kim Bok-hwan, Director of Railway Safety Policy at MOLIT, said, "It is necessary to establish an urban railway crime prevention system to alleviate citizens' anxiety, and installing CCTV inside vehicles is the first step. We will amend the Railway Safety Act to allow additional CCTV installations in stations for crime prevention and secure patrol personnel for the railway police."