Stepping into Seoul's abandoned subway spaces: The ghostly remnants of national upheavals

In a corner inside Sinseol-dong Station in eastern Seoul sits a pink steel door. It's easy to pass by without a second thought, appearing little different from one of many that lead to an equipment room or storage area. 

But behind this door is a forgotten boarding area built for passengers who never came.

Located on the underground Line No. 2 platform bound for Yongdu Station, it leads to a flight of concrete stairs that descend to an unkempt single-track platform that has remained sealed off from the public for decades.

Sinseol-dong Station is home to one of several neglected spaces scattered throughout Seoul's subway system, inaccessible to the public, omitted from maps and long since disappeared into darkness.

When the Korea JoongAng Daily visited the platform on a hot summer day, the abandoned space immediately radiated a different kind of sweltering heat. With each step, the air grew muggier. Reaching the bottom, the reason became obvious: Unlike most stations in Seoul, there were no platform screen doors, allowing every ounce of heat from the tunnel to permeate the space. Air-conditioning units roared loudly, drowning out conversation.

One relic of the station’s past remained on the wall, a weathered sign with faded letters that read “Shinsol-dong,” the station’s old romanization.

Surrounded by age-old, bare concrete walls and safety hazard signs plastered throughout — including one warning of the risk of asphyxia and another cautioning against stalagmites on the ground — the platform offered a rare glimpse into what every subway boarding area would presumably look like during construction.

Except this one never saw the light of day.

This is Seoul’s only disused subway platform with a railway track, according to the station's operator, Seoul Metro. The other idle spaces, in Sindang Station, Yeongdeungpo Market Station and Sinpung Station, house empty concourses — all ghostly remnants of metro expansion plans that never came to fruition.

Derailed by a national tragedy 

Sinseol-dong Station’s neglected platform was built in the 1970s, initially set to connect to Line No. 5. The plan was part of the first phase of Seoul's subway construction project, spanning Lines No. 1 to 5.

Then came the fateful day of Aug. 15, 1974, when Seoul marked two historic occasions: the anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule and the opening of its subway system with Line No. 1.

During the ceremony celebrating freedom, however, first lady Yuk Young-soo was fatally shot in an attempt to kill President Park Chung Hee.

The inauguration of Line No. 1 later that day was reportedly conducted solemnly.

Then-Seoul Mayor Yang Taek-sik resigned shortly after to take responsibility for the security lapse that resulted in the first lady's death, derailing the plans for Lines No. 2 to 5.

Line No. 5 never ended up passing through Sinseol-dong Station, which today serves only Lines No. 1 and 2 and the Ui-Sinseol Line.

The platform, deserted for over five decades, was briefly used as a railcar maintenance facility before being repurposed as an access point for the train depot in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul.

“Usually, one or two trains use this track every hour,” Lee Won-keun, a Seoul Metro official, said during the recent visit as a passenger-less train rolled past. “It looks like the train operator slowed down after seeing us here.”

Where the crowds never came 

The empty concourse inside Sindang Station in central Seoul is reminiscent of a portal into a real-life version of “Backrooms,” embodying the internet-born horror concept of wandering through an endless liminal space with an uncanny atmosphere that was further popularized by the recent box office hit.

The area sits hidden in plain sight, behind a white steel door in a temporary wall between Exits 10 and 11 inside the station. The interior appears to be fully built out and remarkably intact — making it rather surprising that it was not already in use by the public.

The tiles on the walls and columns remain in pristine condition, with light from the fluorescent ceiling fixtures bouncing off the glossy floors. The only traces of human contact are found toward the entrance, where janitors had left piles of cleaning supplies, trash bins and chairs. An archive of the past was also found on the walls here in the form of old, outdated subway maps.

Another steel door in the far back with an overhead sign read: “Backup transfer passage."

It led to a dark, expansive room reaching back like an endless void. This concourse was left undone, with some of the multitude of columns painted mint green and the ceiling and walls bright yellow, along with blocks of concrete stacked on the ground and ceiling lights hanging from snaking wires.

Faint rumbles and roars of subway trains could be heard.

Were it not for the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, this desolate area may have been used as a bustling transfer corridor for Line No. 10. But that never happened.

Build first, plan later 

Seoul sought to ambitiously expand its subway system from the 1980s, after the capital saw striking urban development due to the hosting of the 1988 Summer Olympics and the establishment of new areas such as Bundang, Ilsan and Jungdong in the 1990s. 

The city also grappled with severe congestion after seeing significantly more cars on the roads. According to data released by the Seoul Research Data Service, the number of registered vehicles in Korea surpassed 500,000 in 1986, later surging to 1 million in 1990 and more than twofold to 2.04 million by 1995.

These images show the abandoned concourse inside Yeongdeungpo Market Station in western Seoul. SEOUL METRO

In 1989, Seoul rolled out the second phase of the subway project, and in 1991, the third phase, which mapped out plans for Lines No. 9 to 12. Sindang Station, Yeongdeungpo Market Station and Sinpung Station were planned to connect to Line No. 10. Nonhyeon Station was expected to link up to Line No. 11. 

After the financial crisis, however, construction companies went out of business and the government was unable to secure funding. Of the proposed new lines, only Line No. 9 was ultimately built, while the rest were canceled.

Nonhyeon Station also left behind an unused platform that was later integrated into the Shinbundang Line.

The million-dollar question is why these platforms were built before construction plans were finalized.

Before 2005, as a matter of fact, such an approach was common, as it was not mandatory for railway construction plans to be publicly announced in advance.

These images show Sinpung Station's neglected platform in western Seoul. SEOUL METRO

The operations and infrastructure of the railway used to be managed by a single government body under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. In 2005, the organization was split into two entities: the Korea Railroad Corporation, better known as Korail, which manages train services, and the Korea National Railway, which is in charge of the construction and maintenance of rail infrastructure.

“It was common for construction companies to proceed with projects without even having to finalize them first,” Choi Jin-seok, the head of the research institute Rail Economy Realizing Intelligence, told the Korea JoongAng Daily. “It was not until after 2005 that laws were established requiring the Land Ministry to formally approve and publicly announce construction projects before they could proceed, making the process far more systematic than it had been before.”

Hidden, but not forgotten 

But these seemingly bleak concourses have taken on unexpected second lives, becoming backdrops in popular culture.

Sinseol-dong Station’s single-track platform is a famous filming spot, used for K-pop music videos such as B.A.P’s “One Shot” (2013), EXO’s “Lightsaber” (2015), Twice’s “Cheer Up” (2016) and Beast’s “Ribbon” (2016), as well as for television drama series, from KBS’s “Iris” (2009) to SBS’s “Athena: Goddess of War” (2010-11) and tvN’s “Bring it on, Ghost” (2016).

The location was also given Seoul Future Heritage status in 2021, a municipal designation for modern landmarks and cultural assets deemed worthy of preservation.

Yeongdeungpo Market Station’s concourse area once hosted an exhibition promoting the video game Diablo IV, while Sindang Station's was used for fashion pop-up events for brands such as Vans.

Sinpung Station’s neglected platform has never been open to the public because it remains unfinished.

“We have continued to explore ways to utilize such spaces, but development has been difficult because they lack basic infrastructure, including electricity, telecommunications, fire protection systems and emergency stairways,” a Seoul Metro representative said in a statement.

Leaving Sindang Station’s concourse, Lee, the Seoul Metro official, switched off the lights one by one, slipping the hall back into the shadows.

Outside, the bustle of the 6 p.m. evening rush had taken over the corridors, with commuters hurrying back and forth. It was strange to think that a so-called parallel universe, devoid of foot traffic, lay just behind the steel doors. As Lee locked them, there was no telling when they would open again.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [[email protected]]