Take AREX Express only if your final stop is Seoul Station itself. For almost everywhere else — Hongdae, Gongdeok, a hotel near a different subway line — the All-Stop train gets you there in about the same total time, or faster, because it stops where you actually need to get off instead of forcing a transfer at the end.
Both trains run on the same Incheon International Airport Railroad line, built and still referred to by most signage as AREX (Airport Railroad Express). They cover the same track between Incheon International Airport and Seoul Station. The difference is what happens along the way, and that difference matters more than the headline speed gap most articles quote.
What each train actually is
AREX Express is a nonstop service. It leaves the airport, runs straight through to Seoul Station, and stops nowhere in between. The operator’s own schedule puts the journey at roughly 43 minutes, though timetables shift and should be checked on the Incheon International Airport’s own site before you plan around it.
The All-Stop train is the same line run as a normal commuter service. It calls at every intermediate station — Gimpo Airport, Digital Media City, Hongik University (Hongdae), Gongdeok, and others — before reaching Seoul Station. Total journey time runs closer to 56–60 minutes end to end, but almost nobody rides it end to end. Most passengers get off well before Seoul Station, at the stop nearest their actual destination.
The fare structure, not the fare
AREX Express charges a flat premium fare regardless of where you board along its single route. The All-Stop train is priced like the rest of the subway network: a base fare plus distance, paid with a T-money card the same way you’d pay on any city line, with a free transfer if you continue onto another subway line within the transfer window. That structural difference — flat premium fare versus distance-based transit fare — is what produces the gap you’ll see quoted elsewhere. For the current figures on both, check the fare tables on the operator’s site rather than relying on anything printed here, since fares are revised periodically. How the underlying T-money system works, including how transfers and tap-out charges apply, is covered separately in How T-money Works: Buying, Topping Up, Tapping Out.
The decision rule
Speed alone is the wrong way to choose. What matters is where the train drops you relative to where you’re actually going. Here is the comparison that determines it:
| Factor | AREX Express | All-Stop |
|---|---|---|
| Stops between airport and Seoul Station | None | Gimpo Airport, DMC, Hongik Univ. (Hongdae), Gongdeok, others |
| Best for | Seoul Station itself, or onward KTX/Gyeongui-Jungang connections there | Hongdae, Gongdeok, or any stop before Seoul Station |
| Fare type | Flat premium fare | Standard distance-based T-money fare |
| Luggage space | Dedicated racks, quieter carriage | Standard subway-style carriage, can be crowded at rush hour |
| Frequency | Less frequent | More frequent, runs as part of normal service |
If your hotel or next connection is near Hongdae, the All-Stop train puts you at Hongik University station directly. Taking the Express instead means arriving at Seoul Station and then backtracking on a subway line — often costing more total time than the All-Stop train’s extra 13–17 minutes on paper. The same logic applies to Gongdeok, where Lines 5 and 6 and the Gyeongui-Jungang Line all meet the airport railroad directly.
Express earns its fare only when Seoul Station actually is the destination — for a hotel nearby, or for a same-day connection onto a KTX service, which the Korail network operates from the same station complex.
Luggage and physical load
The Express carriage is built with airport travel in mind: wider aisles, racks sized for large suitcases, fewer standing commuters. The All-Stop train uses standard subway rolling stock. With two large suitcases and a connection that involves stairs rather than lifts, the calculus shifts toward Express even on a route where All-Stop would otherwise win on stops — because the time lost wrestling luggage through a crowded carriage can erase the minutes saved by an earlier stop.
Last train timing
Both services stop running around midnight, but the exact last departure varies by direction, by day, and by which of the two trains you’re on — arrivals from the airport run later into the night than some other lines. Never assume a time from memory; the platform display and station signage carry the current schedule. If your flight lands late, work backward from the airport railroad’s own posted last-train time rather than a subway app calibrated for city-center lines. The general method for calculating a safe cutoff anywhere in Seoul is set out in The Last Train in Seoul: Working Out Your Real Cutoff.
Where this fits with the rest of a first day
Nothing about the airport train interacts with the palace system, but the same T-money card that pays either fare also pays for a day of temple and palace visits once you’re in the city, and the same tap-out discipline applies on buses as well as trains. Anyone planning a first day that includes a palace should also know the admission structure is separate from transport entirely: five royal palaces are priced at roughly a coffee’s cost each, wearing hanbok gets free entry to all of them and to Jongmyo, and each palace keeps a different closing day — Gyeongbokgung closes Tuesday, while Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung and Jongmyo close Monday. Details are in Which Seoul Palace Is Closed on Which Day and Free Palace Entry in Hanbok: How It Actually Works, and the logic of when a combined ticket is worth buying is covered in The Integrated Palace Ticket: What It Covers and When It Pays.
For the wider mechanics of moving around the city once you’re off the airport line — fare zones, transfer rules, which lines run where — see the Getting Around archive. Broader planning questions, including palace-focused itineraries, sit in the Palaces & Shrines archive.
This article was researched from publicly available operator information rather than firsthand travel; see how this site is written, checked and paid for for that distinction, and what is collected when you read this site for the site’s own data practices.
Access Seoul is an independent guide written from published, checkable sources. We have not visited the places described here and we do not publish personal recommendations or invented ‘local favorites’ — where something is singled out as notable, we say who says so. Opening times, fares, closures and prices change at short notice, so treat everything here as a starting point and confirm with the museum, operator or venue directly before building a day around it. We give no advice on visas, insurance, health or safety; use your own government’s official guidance for those.