The average daily ridership of the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Line, the first metropolitan railway opened outside the capital area at the end of last year, was recorded at 60% of the initially predicted demand.
According to the city of Daegu on the 15th, the number of passengers on the line from the start of operations on the 14th of last month to the 13th of this month was 872,000. The average daily ridership was 28,000, which is 59.9% of the initially projected demand of 47,000.
An analysis of the transport status during the first month of operation showed that, unlike the Daegu urban rail lines 1 and 2, the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Line had more passengers on holidays than on weekdays, and more during the daytime than during commuting hours. This suggests that the line is mainly used by non-fixed passengers for tourism and shopping rather than regular commuters. The station with the highest number of boarding and alighting passengers was Daegu Station, followed by Gumi Station and Dongdaegu Station.
The Daegu-Gyeongbuk Line has a total of seven stations, including Gumi, Sagok, Waegwan, Seodaegu, Daegu, Dongdaegu, and Gyeongsan, allowing travel from Gumi to Gyeongsan in about 40 minutes. The city of Daegu has also expanded the public transportation transfer service areas linked with Gyeongbuk local governments, increasing the number of locations from the existing three (Daegu, Gyeongsan, and Yeongcheon) to nine by adding six more: Gimcheon, Gumi, Chilgok, Seongju, Goryeong, and Cheongdo.
A city official of Daegu noted, "We will analyze the ridership estimates and discuss necessary improvements with the Korea Railroad Corporation and others, and we will continue to strive to further expand the metropolitan living area for the citizens of the city."