Gumi City Council Takes Action to Address 594 City Bus Complaints

Culture and Environment Committee Holds Meeting with Gumi Bus and Ilsun Transportation
"We Will No Longer Overlook Citizen Inconvenience"

The Gumi City Council in Gyeongbuk has rolled up its sleeves to address the rapidly increasing number of complaints regarding city buses.

The Culture and Environment Committee of Gumi City Council in Gyeongbuk is holding a meeting with local bus companies.

The Culture and Environment Committee of the Gumi City Council, chaired by Kim Jaeu, held a meeting on June 9 during the 288th regular session with the CEOs of Gumi Bus and Ilsun Transportation, as well as the Director of the Environmental Transportation Bureau and the Head of the Public Transportation Division of Gumi City, to focus on discussing solutions to alleviate citizen inconvenience.

During the meeting, the analysis results of a total of 594 city bus-related complaints received from January 2024 to May 2025 were shared.

Specifically, the complaints included ▲ unkindness of drivers (217 cases), ▲ errors in the bus information system (126 cases), ▲ buses not stopping (94 cases), ▲ non-compliance with operating schedules (89 cases), and ▲ reckless driving (68 cases), indicating that citizen dissatisfaction has accumulated across all aspects of the service.

During the meeting, the committee members directly listed various complaint cases and strongly criticized, saying, "The safety and basic mobility rights of citizens are being threatened."

In response, the bus company representatives explained, "Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the driver shortage has persisted, so we had no choice but to focus solely on maintaining operations," and admitted, "We acknowledge that we have been somewhat negligent in providing kindness training and establishing measures to prevent accidents from recurring."

However, the committee members pointed out, "The fact that there has been no improvement even two years after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is close to structural neglect," and added, "Given that the city provides tens of billions of won annually in transportation subsidies and compensation for losses on unprofitable routes, it is difficult to accept this level of complaints."

In particular, the issue of inconsistent bus dispatching due to joint dispatching?where vehicles are either redundantly deployed or not operated at all during certain time slots?was also raised. The committee members emphasized, "Gumi Bus and Ilsun Transportation must engage in practical consultations on issues such as bus dispatching and vehicle operation to restore public trust."

Kim Jaeu, the committee chair, warned, "Public transportation is directly linked to the basic rights of citizens," and added, "The council will thoroughly analyze the complaints received and continuously monitor whether improvements are made. If requests for support are made in the future budget review process without any improvement in service quality, we will respond firmly."

Meanwhile, Gumi City is pursuing a complete overhaul of bus routes and the advancement of the real-time location-based Bus Information System (BIS) in the second half of this year, and is also reviewing measures to improve the treatment of transportation workers and strengthen service training.