Many Stations Allow No Transfers

Imperfect transfer systems in the neighborhoods of high-speed railway stations, which open on April 1, are expected to cause inconvenience to passengers.

Particularly, around some stations, taxi and bus companies are competing for their interests only, without considering passengers’ convenience.

▽ Competition for Interests

Passengers who get off at Cheonan-asan station can take a taxi of Asan district, but not one of Cheonan district.

Current transportation business laws restrict taxi business districts by the unit of city or county.

Accordingly, taxis from Cheonan taxi union cannot legally pick up passengers in Cheonan-asan station, which is located in Asan, even though it is only 300 meters from Cheonan.

Passengers who go to Cheonan should take an Asan taxi for an extra charge or move at least 300 meters to take a Cheonan taxi.

“This regulation is expected to cause inconvenience because about seventy percent of passengers are analyzed as people from Cheonan,” said a taxi company from Cheonan.

However, Asan’s taxi union and Asan city say that taxis from Cheonan are trying to intrude into their legally guaranteed business district.

Chungnam is planning to have an arbitration meeting with both sides on March 23, but difficulty is expected because of large differences between both sides’ opinions.

Iksan station is in the same situation. Among passengers who get off at Iksan station, those who reside in Jeonju or Gunsan have to take a taxi or a bus to go to a cross-country bus terminal.

Cross-country buses which go to or come from Jeonju or Gunsan cannot pass the road in front of Iksan station because taxi and bus companies from Iksan are opposing building a cross-country bus station.

Iksan is putting off building of a cross-country bus station on the pretext that traffic congestion is expected.

In the case of Gwangmyong station, which is to be used generally by citizens of Incheon or the northwestern area of Gyeonggi, many of the passengers have no choice but to pay an extra charge when they use taxis.

A proposal for the integration of taxi business districts of eight cities including Anyang, Gunpo, and Ansan is under discussion, but an agreement has not been reached yet because of their conflicting interests.

▽ Lack of Preparation Among Local Autonomous Entities

Twenty or more universities located in the northwestern area of Chungnam, are in trouble because of a narrow entrance passageway to the station. For a number of students from the metropolitan area expected to attend school by high-speed railway, the universities were planning to run shuttle buses between the school and Cheonan-asan station.

“Universities cannot even think about running shuttle buses along the 1.5 kilometers-long passage which connects the national road no.21 and the station,” said a source from Soonchunhyang University.

About the impending opening of high-speed railway, a Korea National Railroad (KNR) source said that companies’ competition for interests and the lack of preparation among local autonomous entities will inconvenience passengers, adding that they are considering alternate plans for more convenient transfers such as a rental car system.

Ki-Jin Lee Kyung-Hyun Nam doyoce@donga.com bibulus@donga.com