Sejong City to Make All City Buses Free in 2025... First Local Government Nationwide

[Asia Economy (Sejong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Sejong City is pushing for the complete free operation of city buses. The plan is to operate city buses without charging fares to revitalize public transportation. This is the first case of its kind attempted nationwide in Korea.

On the 14th, the city announced that it will complete the "Research Service for Public Transportation Efficiency" by the end of this month and will sequentially proceed with the procedures for making city buses free based on the results of the research.

By June this year, the city plans to establish a basic plan for fare-free operation and then proceed to revise the Public Transportation Basic Ordinance in the second half of the year.

Through this, the city expects to implement full free operation of city buses starting January 2025.

The free city bus policy was a key pledge made by Mayor Choi Min-ho during the local elections last June. At that time, Mayor Choi promised, "We will enable free use of city buses by reallocating other budgets to city bus operations."

Nationwide, some local governments such as Chungnam and Daegu have implemented free city bus rides for children and the elderly. However, Sejong is the first case in the country to implement full free operation without age or other restrictions.

However, the city faces a significant financial burden to cover the budget required for free city bus operation. Currently, the city bus fare in Sejong is 1,400 KRW by card and 1,500 KRW in cash.

Based on this, the estimated annual deficit from implementing free operation is between 50 billion and 100 billion KRW.

A city official stated, "We plan to consider various options for covering the deficit caused by free city bus operation, taking into account the research service and financial conditions."