Land Ministry's metropolitan transport commission to hold fourth transit hub innovation forum Thursday
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, under South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, will hold the fourth Metropolitan Transit Hub Innovation Forum on Thursday. The event will take place at the Peace and Park Convention Park Hall in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, under the theme "Connected Mobility, Connected Regions."
The forum aims to raise the quality of fast, convenient transit services and build broader social consensus on the issue. For the first time this year, organizers have invited a large group of overseas experts to share leading global transit hub cases and the latest technology trends.
The forum's central topics are advanced transit hub development cases from the United States and Hong Kong. Another key focus is the direction for developing "intelligent future transit hubs" that combine AI and digital twin technology. Keynote speaker R. Jayakrishnan, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, will present a vision for how future transit hubs can drive innovation in metropolitan transportation.
Following him, Jang Sung-hoon, a professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, will draw on Hong Kong's MTR system — which has achieved a 90 percent public transit mode share — to propose ways to apply its lessons to South Korea's transit policy.
"As metropolitan transportation networks expand and new technologies such as AI advance, building a technology-intensive transit system centered on major transportation hubs and improving services for the public have become more important than ever," said Kim Yong-seok, chairperson of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. "We will actively incorporate the overseas best practices and expert recommendations shared at this forum into future transit policy to build a transit system that is convenient for all citizens."
Meanwhile, the commission finalized its "Fourth Basic Plan for the Construction of Transit Hubs and Multimodal Transit Hubs (2026-2030)" last month to improve public transit convenience. The plan calls for doubling the number of transit hubs over the next five years. It includes nine new hubs in the Greater Seoul area, including at Yangjae and Changdong stations, and 15 in other regions.
smh@heraldcorp.com
