Seoul Metro Wins Bronze at Government Innovation Championship with World's First 'Mobile Announcement' System

Mobile announcements provide various operation information such as current location and alighting station alerts via smartphone app
Highly praised for consideration of disabled people who have difficulty recognizing cabin announcements and advanced technology
President Baekho: "Constantly challenging to create a digital-based environment, our efforts have been recognized by the public"

Seoul Metro (President Baek Ho) has been honored with the Bronze Prize (Minister of the Interior and Safety Award) at the ‘2024 Government Innovation Championship’ hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety for its world-first service that allows real-time confirmation of train car announcements via mobile devices.

The Government Innovation Championship is a competition where central government agencies, local governments, education offices, and public institutions participate to discover excellent innovation cases and share achievements. This year, a total of 647 cases were submitted across three categories (▲Government Preparing for the Future ▲Government Solving Problems ▲Government Working Digitally).

Through intense competition over three rounds including expert evaluations and public voting, the final outstanding cases were selected.

Seoul Metro was selected as an excellent innovation case in the “Government Working Digitally” category at this year’s Government Innovation Championship.

The selected case is the “World’s First Mobile Subway Guidance Service for Transportation Vulnerable and Companions.” Currently being piloted on Seoul Subway Line 2, this service delivers various operational information such as real-time current location, alighting station alerts, and evacuation information through the smartphone app (Ttota Subway). Based on beacon technology, a type of location information technology (IoT), it enables accurate identification of the passenger’s location using the service.

Among urban railway agencies worldwide, Seoul Metro is the only one providing announcement broadcasts through an app. Cities like Vancouver in Canada, Washington in the USA, and Delhi in India do not operate official apps, while London in the UK and Sydney in Australia have official apps but only provide train schedules or facility information.

During the evaluation process, Seoul Metro was highly praised for its delicate consideration for transportation vulnerable groups and advanced technology. It prevents situations where disabled or elderly passengers miss their stations because they cannot perceive announcement broadcasts in crowded subway cars, and even if they cannot hear emergency announcements, they can receive immediate assistance.

For the hearing impaired, information is visualized through “visible announcements,” and for the visually impaired, “audible announcements” are provided using text-to-speech (TTS) technology.

As more passengers use smartphones and earphones, missing announcements has become frequent, making this service useful not only for visually and hearing-impaired passengers but also for general passengers.

Baek Ho, President of Seoul Metro, stated, “Seoul Subway has continuously challenged itself to create a digital-based service environment by integrating subway infrastructure with advanced information and communication technology. This award is recognition from the public for our efforts so far. We will continue to lead service innovation in the global urban railway sector and be a safer and more convenient subway that accompanies citizens’ daily lives.”