Despite Increased Tax Funding, Citizen Benefits Decrease
City Councilor Park Pilsun Calls for Reforms Including Route Overhaul
A call for a major reform has been raised regarding the increasing financial burden of the quasi-public operation system for city buses in Gwangju.
Park Pil-soon, a member of the Gwangju City Council (Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangsan-gu 3), stated on the 5th during the review of the 2025 general account revenue and expenditure budget for the Gwangju Integrated Airport Transportation Bureau at the Industry and Construction Committee, “With the opening of Urban Railway Line 2 approaching, we need to reconsider the future of the quasi-public operation system,” adding, “We must also prepare a comprehensive transportation reform that will determine the future image of Gwangju.”
Gwangju has been operating the quasi-public operation system for city buses for 18 years since its introduction in 2007. The quasi-public operation system is a scheme where local governments financially support private bus companies by covering the operating deficit of city buses, calculated as the difference between transportation costs and transportation revenue.
In the case of Gwangju city buses, the transportation cost, which was 136.2 billion KRW at the time of the system’s introduction in 2007, increased by 83% to 249.8 billion KRW in 2025. On the other hand, the number of city bus users decreased by 38%, from 155,367 in 2007 to 96,279 in 2022. Accordingly, transportation revenue also declined by 7.7%, from 116.6 billion KRW to 107.6 billion KRW.
As costs rose and revenue fell, financial support increased dramatically from 19.6 billion KRW in 2007 to 142.2 billion KRW in 2025, a staggering 625% increase.
Regarding this, Councilor Park evaluated, “While the taxpayers’ money invested in the quasi-public operation system for city buses nearly doubled, citizen benefits and revenue actually decreased,” and added, “The quasi-public operation system without innovation was rejected by citizens and followed a path of failure, which induced a car-centric city.”
He continued, “This year, 142.2 billion KRW is scheduled to be invested in financial support for the quasi-public operation system, and with the introduction of new transportation means such as G-Pass, the financial burden will obviously continue to increase,” pointing out, “We cannot continue to maintain the quasi-public operation system, which has become a ‘money-eating hippo,’ like this.”
Councilor Park urged for △ measures to secure funding and reduce the budget for the quasi-public operation system △ improvement of the standard transportation cost calculation method △ reorganization of routes linked to the urban railway △ improvement of the bus-only lane system △ service enhancement △ preparation of plans to utilize big data and AI.
Meanwhile, the Industry and Construction Committee of the Gwangju City Council, during the review of next year’s main budget for Gwangju, requested improvements in the uncertainty of calculation bases in the supplementary budget and cut 17.1 billion KRW out of the 88.2 billion KRW budget for financial support of the quasi-public operation system, referring the matter to the Budget and Accounts Committee.
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