The free transfer system between city buses and village buses in Seoul is on the verge of being suspended. This is due to the Seoul Village Bus Transportation Association claiming losses in the range of 100 billion won and demanding financial support from the Seoul city government. In contrast, the city government stated it would ensure transparency in the village bus industry, including addressing issues of opaque accounting practices.
On the 28th, the city government of Seoul announced that it would implement an improvement plan for village bus operation services.
According to the city government, there are 140 village bus companies within Seoul, with 252 routes in operation. Approximately 1,630 buses are currently in service, and there are about 3,000 drivers.
The city government of Seoul claimed that despite the fare increase for village buses and expanded financial support, citizen inconvenience is growing. While the number of citizens using city buses recorded over 93% compared to 2019, the number of citizens using village buses remains at around 72%. According to the city government, the fare for village buses increased from 900 won to 1,200 won in August 2023. Additionally, the amount of financial support provided to village buses by the city government increased from 19.2 billion won in 2019 to 41.2 billion won this year. In 2019, there were 59 village bus companies, but there are currently 96.
The city government of Seoul stated that it found several issues during a survey conducted on the 252 village bus companies. There were instances of operators not adhering to the first and last bus schedules, irregular intervals between bus departures, and cases where subsidies were applied for based on registered rather than actual running vehicle numbers, as well as poor accounting documents and excessive expenditures outside of operations.
The city government noted that these problems are directly harming citizens' transportation benefits and emphasized the need for urgent measures. It proposed ▲ realistic operation frequencies and departure times tailored to route demand ▲ subsidy calculations based on actual bus numbers in operation and the introduction of performance-linked incentives ▲ designating accounting firms for each transport company and conducting regular audits. Through this, it plans to resolve the lack of buses during rush hours and prevent budget waste.
On the other hand, the Seoul Village Bus Transportation Association has stated that if financial support is not expanded, it will withdraw from the public transportation transfer system jointly operated with city buses and subways. According to the association, when village bus passengers transfer to other public transportation, the fare settled for the village bus is 676 won, resulting in a loss of 524 won per passenger compared to the basic fare of 1,200 won for other public transport.
In response, the association is demanding the city government establish financial support standards and increase fares. The association argued, "Every year, village bus companies incur losses of about 100 billion won," and claimed, "The city government only supports 30-40% of the loss amount and does not sufficiently reflect inflation and wage increases in its financial support, leading to the ongoing deficits for the companies."