The country with the lowest birth rate in the world, South Korea, now wants to motivate its citizens to have children. And especially with a kind of super metro…
Many young couples in South Korea have to travel long distances to work. Apartments in the Seoul metropolitan area, where half of all South Koreans live, are cramped and expensive. For these reasons, many people today no longer want to get married or start a family.
The hope now lies with the new metro. President Yoon Suk Yeol inaugurated the first part of the project worth 134 trillion won (92 billion euros) in the capital Seoul on Friday. Shorter travel times allow people to spend “more time with their families in the morning and evening,” the head of state said.
People need more free time
The Great Train eXpress (GTX) calls for six lines to be built by 2035, connecting Seoul and several outlying districts. The GTX would allow young people to consider a home far from the capital without having to commute for hours, Minister Park Sang-woo proudly told Reuters. “With a two-hour commute, how are you supposed to find time for your kids on the way home? The idea is to give people more free time after work.” They can use the time they save for their family.
Travel time reduced from 80 to 19 minutes
The section of the first line inaugurated by the president aims to shorten the travel time between Seoul’s Suseo district and the satellite city of Dongtan from the current 80 minutes by bus to 19 minutes by new subway. The GTX is expected to be one of the fastest metro systems in the world, with trains reaching a top speed of 180 km/h.
Source: Krone
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