- Mayor gets first-hand experience to see just how congested the rush hour traffic into Seoul is (Geomdan New Town and Gyeyang Station) -

- Incheon plans to expand and increase the number of intra-city and inter-city bus routes... Airport railroad could get additional trains and also an express train -

Incheon Metropolitan City has begun preparing measures to reduce the congestion of public transportation transferring through Gyeyang Station.

The City announced that Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok visited Geomdan New Town and Gyeyang Station in the early morning of April 20 to get a first-hand experience of the pressures put on the city’s bus and airport railroad system.

The Mayor did his inspection to help assess the situation and devise countermeasures that could alleviate the stresses put upon commuters traveling on buses and the subway as they head into Seoul every morning.

At the moment, Incheon has 19 intra-city buses across four routes running from Dangha-dong, Geomdan New Town to Gyeyang Station on the Airport Railroad line, but during the peak rush hour (6:00~7:00 am)*, an average of three to four buses are full and have no choice but to pass by some stops without even stopping. This means some passengers may end up waiting 20 to 30 minutes for a bus that has enough room for them to get on. Moreover, passengers who take the Airport Railroad from Gyeyang Station to Seoul face sub-optimal conditions during rush hour with overcrowded trains.

* Time period when the demand for traffic reaches its maximum

On his inspection, Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok saw for himself how crowded the commuter buses and trains are at Geomdan New Town and Gyeyang Station. The chaos prompted the Mayor to put his administration to work on finding fast-acting solutions that could alleviate congestion for people using the public transportation network and make the commuting experience much less painful during rush hour with more local bus services and additional trains on the Airport Railroad line.

Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok said, “I believe it is an absolute priority to reduce waiting time and congestion by adjusting our public transportation routes and adding more buses and trains during rush hour. We want to make the commuting experience much less stressful for our people.” He added, “Considering the growing population of Geomdan New Town, we need to think about expanding bus routes, increasing the number of buses, and introducing chartered buses during peak hours.”

The Mayor also pointed out, “In the meantime, commuters using the Gyeyang Station during rush hour should be careful so that accidents do not occur while using escalators at the station or waiting for the train. Relevant departments at City Hall will expedite countermeasures based on the problems we confirmed in our inspection today.”

In this regard, Incheon plans to prepare and implement measures to alleviate public transportation congestion in Geomdan New Town and Gyeyang Station.

Starting in October, three out of four intra-city bus routes from Geomdan New Town to Gyeyang Station will get six additional buses, and four other routes servicing Geomdan New Town will get nine new buses. Also, in the first half of next year, three new routes (14 buses) will start carrying passengers to and from Geomdan New Town. Until then, Incheon will review the possibility of deploying chartered buses throughout the first half of this year to ease congestion during rush hour.

As for inter-city buses, Incheon has four routes and 38 seated buses running from Geomdan New Town to Seoul, but the number of buses in service is expected to go up when the semi-public inter-city bus system opens next year. The express (M) bus system has one new route with ten buses scheduled to start shuttling passengers from Geomdan New Town to Gangnam Station in Seoul in June, and an application for two additional routes is currently under review at the Metropolitan Area Transportation Committee.

Meanwhile, Incheon will look to innovate the City’s transportation with its new “Comprehensive Plan for Public Transportation Policy.” With this policy, the City will establish customized transportation policies in line with its urban development policies, improve its subway operations and semi-public bus system, and adjust fares to match today’s price levels.