AREX Airport Railroad Guide: 9 Stops Worth Getting Off

For most visitors, AREX is the first train they ride in Korea and the last one they ride out. It runs 63.8 km from Seoul Station to Incheon Airport Terminal 2, and on the way it crosses the Han River plain, a man-made canal, a reclaimed coastline and a stretch of open sea to the airport island. Almost everyone sits through all of it with a suitcase between their knees.

That is a pity. The line also serves Seoul Station, where you can check in and clear immigration before you reach the airport, a 24-hour soup house at Hongdae, a botanic park by Gimpo, a canal in Incheon and the beaches of Yeongjong Island. This guide goes stop by stop; for the fare-by-fare comparison of train, bus, taxi and pickup, see our Incheon Airport to Seoul comparison.

Where does AREX go?

West from Seoul Station to Incheon Airport, on one line with two kinds of train. The all-stop train (일반열차 ilban yeolcha) calls at all 14 stations and works like any subway line with a transit card. The express (직통열차 jiktong yeolcha) runs non-stop from Seoul Station to Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, with reserved seats and a separate ticket.

🚆 AREX at a glance (AREX; timetable revised October 23, 2026)

Item	AREX
Termini	Seoul Station (A01) – Incheon Airport Terminal 2 (A11)
Stations	14
Route length	63.8 km
Operator	Airport Railroad Co. (AREX)
All-stop train	All stations; Seoul Station–T1 59 min, –T2 66 min; 4,750 / 5,350 won by transit card
Express train	Seoul Station–T1 43 min, –T2 51 min; 13,000 won (adult), reserved seats; 28 a day each way
Opened	March 23, 2007 (Gimpo Airport–Incheon Airport); December 29, 2010 (to Seoul Station); January 2018 (Terminal 2)
Transfers	Seoul Station (Lines 1, 4, Gyeongui-Jungang, KTX, GTX-A), Gongdeok (5, 6, Gyeongui-Jungang), Hongik Univ. (2, Gyeongui-Jungang), Digital Media City (6, Gyeongui-Jungang), Magongnaru (9), Gimpo Int’l Airport (5, 9, Gimpo Goldline, Seohae), Gyeyang (Incheon 1), Geomam (Incheon 2)

Station numbers have gaps because three stations came later: Cheongna International City (A071) in 2014, Yeongjong (A072) in 2016 and Magongnaru (A042) in 2018. Fares follow the metropolitan distance scale as far as Cheongna, but the airport section is priced separately, so the fare jumps: Seoul Station to Cheongna is 2,150 won by card, but Seoul Station to Yeongjong, one stop further, is 3,350 won.

---

Which AREX stations are worth getting off at?

Nine, counting the two airport terminals as one stop. Gongdeok and Digital Media City are mainly transfer points on this line; Lines 5 and 6 cover what is above them.

📍 9 AREX stops worth the exit (station numbers and transfers: AREX; exits: AREX, VisitSeoul, K-water, Incheon Airport)

Station (No.)	Exit	Why get off	Local eat nearby	Transfer
Seoul Station (A01)	B2 (city airport terminal)	Check in and clear immigration before the airport; last-minute shopping	Taegeukdang (bakery since 1946)	Lines 1, 4, Gyeongui-Jungang, KTX, GTX-A
Hongik Univ. (A03)	8	Drop your bags, mall above the platforms, Hongdae on foot	Boseung Hoegwan Hongdae (24 hours)	Line 2, Gyeongui-Jungang
Magongnaru (A042)	3	Seoul Botanic Park, three minutes from Gimpo	Keopi-e Kkoch-eul Damda (café)	Line 9
Gimpo Int’l Airport (A05)	Inside the terminals	Domestic flights; 38 minutes from Incheon T1	Lotte Mall food floors (B1 passage)	Lines 5, 9, Gimpo Goldline, Seohae
Gyeyang (A06)	1	Ara Waterway and Suhyangwon garden; Gyeyangsan via Incheon Line 1	Yennal Dwaeji Gukbap (Gyesan-dong)	Incheon Line 1
Cheongna Int’l City (A071)	Bus or taxi	Cheongna Lake Park, the THE SKY184 bridge observatory	Gangseonsaeng’s Naengmyeon Makguksu	—
Yeongjong (A072)	Taxi	Gu-eup Baetteo ferry pier and fish market	Jayeondo Salt Bread	—
Unseo (A08)	Bus or taxi	Airport New Town hotels; Eurwangni and Masian beaches	Hwanghae Haemul Kalguksu (Masian)	—
Incheon Airport T1 & T2 (A10, A11)	Inside the terminals	Free culture centre airside, transit tours, free maglev from T1	— (eat on the island instead)	—

---

What is there to do at each AREX stop?

East to west, from Seoul Station to the terminals. Restaurants come from our neighbourhood guides unless stated.

Seoul Station (A01) — check in before you board

The AREX station is a separate deep station under the west side of Seoul Station. AREX’s floor plan puts the express ticket office and the city airport terminal on B2, the all-stop gates and the passage to Lines 1 and 4 on B3, and the platforms on B7, so allow extra time when changing from KTX or the subway. With an express ticket, you scan the QR code at the terminal gate and then check in, drop your bags and pass departure immigration here. At Incheon you use a dedicated lane on the 3rd-floor departure level instead of the main queue.

🛫 Seoul Station city airport terminal (AREX, accessed 2026-11-01)

Item	Details
Who can use it	Express-ticket holders, for same-day international flights from Incheon
Check-in	05:20–19:00 (last entry 18:50); closes 3 h before departure (T1) or 3 h 20 min (T2)
Departure immigration	05:30–19:00
Airlines	Korean Air, Asiana, Jin Air, Air Busan, Air Seoul (T2); Jeju Air, Trinity Airways, Eastar Jet (T1)
Not accepted	US-bound routes including Guam and Saipan (most airlines), oversized bags, sports equipment, instruments

So start an airport day here: drop the suitcase in the morning, spend the afternoon in the city and ride out with a backpack. For last-minute snacks, Lotte Mart Zettaplex sits above the station, open 10:00–24:00 and closed on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays, with free two-hour bag storage and tax refunds; our Seoul Station Lotte Mart guide has the floor plan. In the same complex is Taegeukdang, Seoul’s oldest bakery, opened in 1946; its monaka (ice-cream wafers) and castella travel well, so buy a box for the flight. For a sit-down meal around the station, see our Seoul Station food guide.

📍 Open in Naver Map

Hongik Univ. (A03) — drop the bags and head out

Eight minutes and 1,550 won from Seoul Station, Hongik Univ. is where many visitors arrive and leave on the all-stop train. The AREX station shares an address with the AK& Hongdae mall above it (Yanghwa-ro 188), a dry place for the last hours before a flight. Lockers and staffed bag counters fill the station area; our half-day in Hongdae before a flight explains how to pick one by your route out. From here the all-stop train takes about 52 minutes to Terminal 1 and 59 minutes to Terminal 2 (4,650 won by card to T1). Hongdae’s streets are in the Line 2 guide.

The first airport-bound train leaves Hongik Univ. at 05:28, which is when a 24-hour kitchen pays off. Boseung Hoegwan Hongdae, by Exit 8, was one of 12 places our Hongdae late-night guide confirmed as open 24 hours on two map platforms in July 2026: 순대국밥 sundae-gukbap, pork and blood-sausage soup, was 11,000 won. Only this branch runs all night.

📍 Open in Naver Map

Magongnaru (A042) — a garden between flights

About 19 minutes from Seoul Station and 3 minutes from Gimpo Airport, Magongnaru is a two-line station whose exits are split by line: Exits 3 to 6 open from the AREX concourse. VisitSeoul puts Seoul Botanic Park about 520 m from Exit 3. Three of its four zones are free; only the Theme Garden with the glass conservatory is ticketed and closed on Mondays. It suits a Gimpo layover or a rainy departure day; see our Magok guide and, for the Line 9 side, the Line 9 guide. For coffee, Keopi-e Kkoch-eul Damda (“putting flowers in coffee”), 182 m from Exit 3, has floor-to-ceiling windows and opens at 08:00, before the garden does.

📍 Open in Naver Map

Gimpo Int’l Airport (A05) — for domestic flights

Gimpo is Seoul’s domestic airport, with short hops to Japan, China and Taiwan. If you land at Incheon and fly on to Jeju or Busan the same day, AREX is the link: about 38 minutes on the all-stop train from Terminal 1, 4,350 won by card, no transfer. The international and domestic terminals are separate buildings; use the B1 passage through Lotte Mall to walk between the station and the terminals, as our Gimpo Airport hotels guide explains. We could not verify a long-running local restaurant at the station itself, so eat on the mall’s food floors or one stop back at Magongnaru.

Gyeyang (A06) — the canal gorge

The first Incheon stop, 28 minutes from Seoul Station and 1,950 won, sits beside the Gyeongin Ara Waterway, Korea’s first man-made canal; AREX puts the waterside path five minutes on foot. K-water’s directions put Suhyangwon, a Korean-style garden with a pavilion, 22 minutes from Exit 1. For Gyeyangsan, at 395 m the highest peak on mainland Incheon, change here to Incheon Line 1 and ride four stops to Gyesan. After the hike, Yennal Dwaeji Gukbap in Gyesan-dong serves rice in milky pork broth; a September 2026 review paid 10,000 won, and it closes on Mondays. All of this is in our Gyeyang guide.

📍 Open in Naver Map

Cheongna Int’l City (A071) — the lake and the sea bridge

About 40 minutes and 2,150 won from Seoul Station, Cheongna is the last stop before the train crosses to the island, and only all-stop trains call. Cheongna Lake Park is about 2.5 km south of the station, so take a bus or taxi; the music fountain runs from May to early October. The new Cheongna Haneul Bridge opened on January 5, 2026, and its observatory, THE SKY184, is bookable online and closed on Mondays; take a taxi from the station. For lunch, Gangseonsaeng’s Naengmyeon Makguksu presses 100% buckwheat noodles to order and makes its dumplings by hand. It was on television in late October 2026, so expect queues. Our Seohae-gu guide covers the rest, including the free biology museum by Geomam Station.

📍 Open in Naver Map

Yeongjong (A072) — the old ferry pier

After the long run across the water, Yeongjong is the island’s first stop, 48 minutes and 3,350 won from Seoul Station. AREX says the station’s roof was designed after a swallow in flight, after the island’s old name, 자연도 Jayeondo, “island of purple swallows”. A short taxi ride away is Gu-eup Baetteo, the old ferry pier facing Wolmido, with a fish market where you choose seafood and eat it upstairs, and gulls that follow the boats. By the pier, Jayeondo Salt Bread (Eunhasu-ro 10) sells one thing, buttery salt bread in boxes of four; a June 2026 guide gave 12,000 won a box and advised coming before 14:00. See our Yeongjong guide.

📍 Open in Naver Map

Unseo (A08) — the hotel town and the beaches

Unseo, 52 minutes from Seoul Station and 8 minutes from Terminal 1, is the centre of Airport New Town, the hotel strip used for late arrivals and dawn departures; our transit hotels guide compares the options. The west-coast beaches are not on the railway: plan on 15–30 minutes by taxi or bus from here or the terminals. Eurwangni is a 700 m crescent of sand and pines with a sunset and a strip of clam grills; Masian turns into wide mudflats at low tide. On the Masian coast road, Hwanghae Haemul Kalguksu (Masiran-ro 37) serves knife-cut noodles in a dried-pollack broth loaded with clams, mussels and scallops; portions are large, so order by headcount and take a number at weekends.

📍 Open in Naver Map

Incheon Airport T1 (A10) and T2 (A11) — inside the terminals

The all-stop train reaches Terminal 1 in 59 minutes and runs on to Terminal 2 in about 6 more; between the two terminals the fare is 1,200 won by card. Airside, the Korea Traditional Culture Experience Center in Terminal 1, on the 3rd floor near Gate 29, runs free craft programmes and short gugak performances (06:30–21:30, according to Incheon Airport), and Terminal 2 has two branches near Gates 225 and 274, reopened in December 2024. Transit passengers with up to 24 hours can join the airport’s transit tours from desks on the arrivals floor. From Terminal 1, the free maglev runs 6.1 km past Paradise City to Yongyu, from 10:00 to 17:00 about every 35 minutes, Kyunghyang Shinmun reported in April 2026. The terminals have food courts but no long-running local restaurant, so on a layover eat on the island at the Yeongjong and Unseo stops above. For timings, see our Incheon layover plans for 4, 8 or 24 hours.

---

How do you ride AREX without missing your flight?

Know which train you are on, which terminal you need and when the last train goes. The rest is ordinary subway riding.

---

One-day route along AREX

Leave Seoul early, work west to the island and come back after sunset. Avoid Mondays, when the Botanic Park conservatory is closed, and check the sunset time before you go.

• 08:30 — Hongik Univ., Exit 8. Sundae-gukbap at Boseung Hoegwan, then the all-stop train west.
• 09:30 — Magongnaru, Exit 3. Seoul Botanic Park's conservatory when it opens, coffee by the gate.
• 11:30 — Gyeyang, Exit 1. Walk the Ara Waterway path to Suhyangwon garden.
• 13:30 — Yeongjong. Taxi to Gu-eup Baetteo: seafood upstairs at the fish market, salt bread and the gulls.
• 15:30 — Unseo, then the coast. Taxi or bus to Masian for seafood kalguksu and the mudflats.
• Sunset — Eurwangni Beach. The walk along the sand, then a taxi to Terminal 1.
• Evening — back to Seoul. The last weekday all-stop train to Seoul Station leaves T1 at 23:37; the last express at 22:46.