'Additional 150 Won for Bus Trips Over 10km'... Seoul Bus Also Adopts Distance-Based Fare System

Seoul City Submits Plan for Base Fare Increase and Fare System Changes to City Council

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government is pushing to introduce a distance-based fare system for buses, similar to the subway, where an additional fare is charged if the boarding distance exceeds 10 km, in line with this year's public transportation fare increase. The introduction of a distance-based fare system for buses is the first in 19 years since the Seoul bus system was reorganized in July 2004.

According to the city council on the 8th, Seoul submitted the "Seoul Public Transportation Fare Adjustment Plan Opinion Hearing Proposal" containing this content to the city council on the 6th.

Looking at the hearing proposal, the city suggested changing the fare system from the current flat fare system to a distance-based system along with an increase in the basic bus fare. Currently, in Seoul, if you use only the bus once without transferring to the subway, you only pay the basic fare.

However, once the distance-based fare system is applied to Seoul buses, even if you only ride the bus, you will have to pay an additional fare if you exceed a certain distance.

For main and branch line buses, if the usage distance exceeds 10 km, an additional 150 KRW is charged every 5 km for distances between 10 and 30 km, and 150 KRW is added for distances exceeding 30 km. Additional fares are expected even if you travel only by city bus from Gangnam through the city center to the Gangbuk area. For wide-area buses, 150 KRW is charged every 5 km for distances between 30 and 60 km, and an additional 150 KRW is charged for distances exceeding 60 km. For late-night buses, 140 KRW is charged every 5 km for distances between 30 and 60 km, and 150 KRW is added for distances exceeding 60 km. However, village buses will maintain the flat fare system.

Also, the basic fare for main and branch line buses was proposed in two options as previously announced: an increase of either 300 KRW or 400 KRW. Currently, the general fare for Seoul city buses is 1,200 KRW based on card payment. A plan was prepared to raise the wide-area bus fare from 2,300 KRW by 700 KRW to 3,000 KRW. The city explained that this is to align the fare level with the Gyeonggi wide-area buses (Gyeonggi Circular Bus). The basic fare for the Gyeonggi Circular Bus is 3,050 KRW.

Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

The village bus fare will be raised from 900 KRW to 1,200 KRW, an increase of 300 KRW. The late-night bus fare will increase by 350 KRW from 2,150 KRW to 2,500 KRW.

For the subway, two options were proposed to raise the current basic fare of 1,250 KRW based on card payment to either 1,550 KRW or 1,650 KRW. The increase (300 to 400 KRW) is the same as for buses. Additional fares under the distance-based system will increase by 50 KRW, from 100 KRW to 150 KRW every 5 km for distances between 10 and 50 km, and from 100 KRW to 150 KRW every 8 km for distances exceeding 50 km.

For the metropolitan area integrated transfer discount, the regulation to charge the highest basic fare among the used transportation modes remains, but an option was proposed to charge 150 KRW per 5 km beyond the basic distance instead of the current 100 KRW.

The city explained, "Over the past five years, the average annual transportation deficit increased to 920 billion KRW for the subway and 540 billion KRW for city buses, while the fare realization rates dropped to 62.0% for the subway and 57.8% for buses as of 2021."

Bus and subway fares will be finalized after a public hearing on the 10th of this month, followed by opinion hearings at the city council and deliberations by the Price Countermeasure Committee. There is a possibility of changes during the discussion process.