Subway spatial data could support paid in-station wayfinding

A data-opening project to create building blocks for services has begun

Seoul Metro (서울교통공사), the operator of Seoul’s subway system, announced on June 9, 2026, that it had been selected for a national priority-data project to open subway crowding and safety-facility data. This is not a contest where citizens or teams submit ideas for prizes. It is a project to newly build data that private-sector services can use.

The planned data includes real-time crowding by train carriage, 3D station drawings, and location data for safety equipment. Seoul Metro plans to release it in stages, linked to existing real-time usage information, for uses such as transit guidance, facility management, and disaster response.

The crowding file already available has different characteristics. Seoul Open Data Plaza (서울열린데이터광장) provides average crowding levels for Lines 1–8 by station, direction, and day of the week in 30-minute intervals, updated quarterly. A crowding level of 34% means all seats are occupied. It can therefore help compare recurring rush-hour patterns, but it does not show the condition of the train arriving now.

Station-use guide maps and emergency-evacuation guide images are also already available. They provide evacuation routes as images, which is different from a 3D map that guides someone across floors from their current position to a destination.

You need to check the actual release page to see which stations are included, what file formats are provided, how often they are updated, and how far they can be used in commercial services. Some safety-facility data and detailed drawings may be only partially released for security reasons. Do not build a service on the assumption that you will receive a complete, highly detailed map.

The first customer may be an event operator, not a station

Consider the representative of an event-production agency with 12 employees as the first customer. The company runs events at exhibition venues or hotels connected to subway stations and tells attendees which station and exit to use.

Today, staff capture map screens and add exit numbers and building names in text. They send separate instructions to attendees who need elevators. On the day of the event, they take calls from lost attendees or place guide staff at decision points.

They also copy information between sources repeatedly. They find stations and exits in a map service, confirm building entrances on the venue website, then copy an old guide and replace the event name and location. If an exit closes, construction begins, or an elevator location changes, they can easily miss it until a staff member who visited the site reports it.

You can find the first 10 prospects through public event listings for exhibition venues, hotels, and large hospitals directly connected to subway stations. They are currently managing the problem with web-map links, image files, long text instructions, and on-site guide staff. If they explain the same route again for every event, there is a reason to test a new guidance tool.

Once spatial data is available, an operator could select a departure line, arrival station, event-venue entrance, and whether stairs can be used, then create one arrival-guidance link. Attendees could check which carriage is relatively less crowded and, after getting off, move toward the venue through elevators and exits.

What operators pay for is not a map. It is less repeated work. You need to show that the service can reduce the time spent making event-specific instructions, wayfinding calls, and staff placed at decision points. A realistic first sales unit is not a large route-planning service, but a service that makes the few routes needed for one event.

Much work will still remain manual. Elevator failures, temporary construction, and whether internal venue routes are provided cannot be confirmed from the current data alone, so separate on-site checks may be needed. Show the measurement time and accuracy with crowding data too. When a value is unavailable, clearly state that it is a historical average.

You do not need to cover every station in Seoul from the start. Connect one station and one venue that a first customer actually uses, and make only two routes: a standard route and a route that avoids stairs. That is enough to test willingness to pay.

Abroad, infrastructure operators paid the cost

Network Rail, the UK rail-infrastructure operator, introduced indoor wayfinding at 20 managed stations with Goodmaps. Passengers use it for free, while the operator commissions the creation of internal station maps and the guidance service.

According to Network Rail, usage exceeded 15,000 sessions by December 2024, averaging about 2,000 per month. In an earlier four-station trial, about 7,000 routes were created. What matters is that actual usage was checked before expansion.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority tested accessibility technology at Jay Street–MetroTech station from October 2019 to January 2020. For users with visual, hearing, mobility, and cognitive disabilities, it compared several wayfinding services, tactile maps, high-contrast maps, and floor guidance lines at one station.

More than 300 people took part in the test, more than 30 guidance events were held, and more than 1,000 survey responses were collected. Rather than building a large product first, it was a case of watching whether people could find their way all the way through a real station.

What could come from this

1. An event arrival-route production service

This service creates a custom guidance link from the subway to an event registration desk for each event. It is for agencies that run seminars at subway-connected exhibition venues and hotels and recreate arrival instructions every time.

When station spatial data becomes available, there is a reason to start now: guidance can move beyond listing an exit number to showing movement by floor. The first screen should include fields for the event name, arrival station, venue entrance, and whether stairs can be used.

2. An elevator-route check service for hospital visitors

This service creates a route that avoids stairs from a station to a hospital entrance, with on-site verification notes added by staff. It is for customer-support teams at large hospitals connected to subway stations that receive wayfinding calls from wheelchair and stroller users.

Published 3D drawings could provide a starting point for routes inside the station, but the hospital would still need to verify failures and construction information directly. The first screen should show the route between the station and hospital entrance, verification date, elevator status, and temporary detour guidance.

3. A safety-equipment field inspection tool

This service finds publicly available safety equipment, such as fire extinguishers and emergency bells, on a station map and records inspection results and photos. It is for field supervisors at contractors that inspect facilities across multiple stations.

When safety-equipment location data is released, it could reduce time spent finding equipment from paper lists. But the actual released items and their precision must be verified. The first screen should show a floor-by-floor map of today’s station, a list of uninspected equipment, and a photo-upload button.

4. A crowding commute guide for shift workers

This guidance service compares departure times and boarding positions using recurring crowding patterns. It is for scheduling staff at hospitals or large facilities where many employees start work at the same time.

It can create basic guidance from the current 30-minute average crowding data, then add same-day guidance if real-time carriage-level data becomes available. The first screen should take a shift start time, arrival station, and line, then show departure times with different crowding levels and the data reference date.

Why this matters where you are

This opportunity depends partly on Korean conditions: Seoul Metro’s planned public-data release, the coverage and permissions of that data, and subway-connected venues in Seoul. Check whether transit agencies in your market publish or plan to publish station layouts, accessibility information, crowding data, and terms that permit commercial use. Even where those inputs differ, you can test the same narrow question: whether an event or facility operator will pay to reduce repeated arrival guidance work.

What to check today

Choose three event operators from next month’s schedules at venues connected to subway stations, then call for 30 minutes. Ask how they made their most recent guidance notice, whether wayfinding calls and on-site staff are repeatedly needed, and whether they would try paying for someone to make a few arrival routes for their next event. If two of the three show their existing guidance notices and agree to discuss a paid test, it is worth making the first screen.