Seoul Bus System Still In Confusion On New System’s Second Day

On Friday, the second day of the introduction of a new transportation system in Seoul, new traffic card readers malfunctioned again in some buses and subways. Some passengers were even charged wrong fares, resulting in quarrels with drivers.

Some citizens, who experienced longer waits for bus arrivals and traffic jams, even in bus-only lanes, expressed strong complaints.

--Malfunctioning fare system

Card readers, installed in 1,000 buses out of a total 8,900 buses, and 63 card readers out of a total 7,900 in 392 subway stations, malfunctioned. Due to this problem, passengers were allowed to travel free. The same malfunctioning of card readers happened last Monday and Thursday.

In particular, card readers in some buses made errors when passengers changed to other forms of transportation. It failed to provide discounts. Also, the new system could not read some Kookmin and Samsung cards, and prepaid traffic cards at all.

On Friday afternoon, a company employee, Park Jong-hyun (32), said that he got onto bus number 7016 at the World Cup Complex 3 bus terminal in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, and got off from the bus at the Hong-ik University subway station to transfer to a subway. He continued, “I thought it was strange that the total fare was shown as 3,200 won on the card reader when entering to the subway. So, I checked again at the Sonnung subway station and it was 3,600 won. Then, I realized that I was charged 3,200 won by the local bus.”

Regarding these errors, the LG CNS said, “Software on some card readers was not installed properly. There were also mistakes in fare calculation, due to malfunctioning card readers and inexperienced drivers. We will provide appropriate compensation measures to this, after analyzing the situation.”

The company explained about these repeated errors made by card readers, saying, “We conducted many tests prior to the opening of the new traffic system. Still, there are problems in real life situations that we could not predict.”

T-money, that gives a 20 percent discount to juniors aged between 13-18, have to be registered through the T-money Internet homepage or its customer service centers after purchasing one. However, the Korean Smart Card, the manufacturer of the T-money card, was not ready to receive the registrations. As a result, students, who already purchased T-money, tried to register without luck. They submitted complaints.

The issue date of the T-money, that gives a 50 percent discount to children aged between 6~12, has not been confirmed, and this is another source of complaints.

--Complaints about Bus, Terminals, and Services Still Same

It is hard for a passenger to find out if the charged fare is correct because there is no system provided by the Seoul Metropolitan Government to calculate fares when transferring to another form of transportation, although there is a possibility that an incorrect amount could be charged as a fare.

This service should have been available several days ahead of the change. However, even on the second day of the change, we still don’t know when it will become available.

There are other complaints pointing out that it is not easy for a passenger to find her destination since route information displayed outside a bus is written in too small letters, paying too much attention only to looks. Frequent transfers and changes in numbering systems are also causing significant problems, particularly to seniors.

Longer waits between bus arrivals and a lack of guidance were the same as the previous day. A company employee, Son Ji-hyun (32, Shindorim-dong, Guro-gu), said, “I had to wait for almost 20 minutes to get on bus number 600. The bus arrived late and was extremely crowded. There was no route map or on board announcement. The bus even skipped some terminals it stopped at yesterday.”

The Seoul Government originally planned to use helpers only until Friday. However, it decided to dispatch helpers next Monday and Tuesday as well, skipping this weekend. Yet, citizens are cynical, saying, “The helpers just sit on terminal benches and chat. They say that they don’t know information when asked.”

--Effect of Central Busway Doubtful

The main road in Kangnam, where the Central Busway System is operating, became a parking lot around 9 p.m. Thursday night. As 84 buses lined up covering 500 meters, there was a ‘train made of buses’ that locked passengers inside. The congestion continued to Friday at 1 a.m.

The Seoul Government said, “Both local and intercity buses converged together at the same time on the Gangnam road, and too many passenger inquiries delayed bus departures from their normal 0.7 seconds to 1.8 seconds. We are adjusting bus lines and trying to introduce measures to reduce bus departure times.”

On Friday morning, buses were able to run relatively fast while traveling on the Central Busway. However, congestion continued to occur on roads right after the Central Busway ended, and on regular lanes.

Ji-Young Chae yourcat@donga.com