Incheon City will operate 'cashless city buses' in eight autonomous districts within the city, excluding Ganghwa and Ongjin counties, starting from January next year.
The city buses eliminating cash fare boxes include 194 routes and 1,962 buses under the semi-public operation system applied by the city. Passengers without transportation cards can purchase transportation cards available on the bus or transfer fares via bank account using the fare payment guide.
Since 2009, the city has been implementing a semi-public operation system that subsidizes the deficit of city bus operating costs with the city budget. To enhance citizen convenience and operational efficiency through transportation card boarding instead of cash, the city conducted three pilot operations of cashless city buses starting in 2022.
During this period, the cash boarding rate of Incheon city buses decreased from 1.68% in January 2022 to 0.086% in October this year. Accordingly, the city decided to fully implement cashless city buses, considering that the majority of citizens have become accustomed to using transportation cards.
The city expects to reduce costs associated with cash fare collection, prevent accident risks and delays that may occur during cash payment while operating, and lessen the workload of transportation workers related to fare box management.
Meanwhile, the city plans to delay the introduction of cashless buses and conduct additional monitoring for 62 routes (41 buses) in Ganghwa County and 14 routes (18 buses) in Ongjin County, where the elderly have a high cash usage rate and alternative transportation options are poor.
An Incheon city official stated, "We will provide more efficient and convenient public transportation services through the implementation of cashless buses," adding, "Prior to this, we will strengthen advance publicity and complaint response training for transportation workers to minimize citizen confusion."
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