“I got on the subway at 7:30, but it hasn’t even started moving for 20 minutes,” said an office worker in his 30s who had given up on getting to work on time, expressing his frustration on the morning of the 15th due to a power supply failure on Subway Line 3 in Daehwa-dong, Ilsanseo-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do.
At around 5 a.m., Korail confirmed a power outage between Wondang Station and Wonheung Station on Line 3 and suspended train operations from Daehwa to Jichuk on the first train.
At around 6:50 a.m., Goyang City sent an emergency text message to citizens, advising them to use other means of public transportation, such as buses.
However, at each station in the Goyang City section of Line 3, passengers who were unaware of the train service disruption were in an uproar, causing station staff to break a sweat.
One citizen we met at Juyeop Station said, “I came here without knowing the situation, and the train wasn’t coming. The announcement was inaudible. I got angry after I found out about the train disruption from the people next to me.”
Shortly after 7 a.m., the train began to run in both directions on a single track, but the train repeatedly stopped and re-started.
When the delay from Ilsan to Gupabal was about 30 minutes to an hour longer than usual, some passengers even got off the train halfway and switched to other means of transportation.
A passerby with the surname Lim said, “As I saw people coming out of the station, I gave up on the train, took a bus with difficulty, and then took Line 3 from Gupabal to work, which made me about an hour late than usual.”
The roads around Daehwa Station, the end of Line 3 in Ilsan, were tangled with citizens and vehicles trying to use buses instead of trains, and the police were dispatched to control traffic.
Resident Lee Yong Min said, “I left for work at 7 o’clock, but after seeing the text message about the train disruption, I planned to take a bus and then take a taxi from Gwanghwamun,” and complained, “I don’t know when I can get on because the line to wait for the bus is too long.”
In some cases, intercity buses left the starting point of Daehwa Station full and passed through the remaining stations in Goyang City without stopping, confusing citizens.
College student Yoon Ju Hyun, “I have an important first-period class, and it would cause me trouble if I’m late. I called for a taxi because I didn’t think I could get there on time by bus, but I can’t even catch that.”
As Line 3 became congested, passengers flocked to the nearby Gyeongui Line, causing congestion there as well.
The Gyeongui Line, which usually has more passengers than Line 3 during commuting hours, was so crowded with passengers at nearby stations such as Haengsin, Goksan, Pungsan, Pung-dong, Ilsan, and Tanhyeon that there was no room to step inside the train.
Meanwhile, Goyang City responded by extending various bus routes to Gupabal in Seoul and increasing the number of buses and shuttles.
The buses that are being urgently extended to Gupabal were No. 67 (Paju-Hwajeong), No. 052 (Goyang-Samsong), and No. 053 (Goyang-Samsong), and Seoul-bound buses such as No. 790, 799, and 730 are also being increased, and the seating restrictions for downtown-bound intercity buses going to Seoul have been temporarily lifted.
In addition, city hall commuter buses have been canceled to run between Baeksok-Gupabal, Jeongbalsan-Gupabal, and Daehwa-Gupabal, and emergency buses are running from Daehwa Station to DMC.
Korail announced that the train disruption occurred at around 4:30 a.m. on the 15th due to a power supply failure on the track towards Daehwa Station between Wonheung and Wondang Station on Line 3. An emergency repair team is currently on-site for repairs, and the cause of the failure is being investigated.