Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sojusucks]

http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20110519000618

[sojusucks]

Free ridership for seniors sounds like a noble idea but, in practice, it is impractical and too expensive. If the budget deficit comes from providing too many free rides to older Koreans then show some courage and limit those free rides. Many of them seem to ride because they have nothing else to do. They take up seats and space, especially during rush hour. There probably won't be much sympathy for many of the older riders because of the way that so many of them conduct themselves on the subway. The older men, (ajoshis), are too often drunk and the ajummas can be rude and obnoxious.
If they need a ride to a job or to the hospital, then there should be a way to allow them to receive free subway cards. But if they just want to get drunk and ride the subway all day for free and ruin trips for those who actually pay, then that's just gotta stop. Like I said, you can have all of the sympathy you want for them, but that ajumma who ran you over, knocked you into next week with an elbow, or who spent the entire subway ride glaring at you, also expects you to pay extra for her to ride for free. That should stop. That's not just a "foreigner" thing- many younger Koreans feel the same way.

[PigeonFart]

The Seoul public transport system is staggeringly inexpensive. A ten or twenty percent increase would still result in a cheap and efficient public transport system. If only other cities had such a good system.

[sojusucks]

[NSMatt]

[DaHu]

[hogwonguy1979]

lets see a 200 won increase would raise my commuting expense by 1600 won/week I aint complaining. Its one of the best bargains in Korea or heck the world. My family in NYC would kill for these fares

yeah given longer life spans maybe they should raise the senior free fare age to 70 does make sense, dont think people over 65 ride for free in the states so why not here

[daunting]

[Jane]

Some subway systems around the world employ a 'peak hour' fare scheme, which at time can be confusing, but could mean increased revenues.

[Hugo85]

[yeti08]

With Korea's aging society I feel the free ride given to the elderly would sting especially in the coming years. A reduced rate would be fair enough and I like idea of a raised rate during "rush" hours. Still not sure about what some of those are.
On another note, I hate when schools use the subway as a mode of transportation for school trips. Especially during peak times. Rent a bus, use a bus, something other than clogging the trains with loud kids. Sheesh we see enough of them already.

[jinks]

[Mr. BlackCat]

[Chalmers]

But, are they giving away chicken dinners or costco memberships?

[atwood]

Give senior citizens a discount, but not a completely free ride.

And cut the spending on new maps etc. in the cars when the old ones are perfectly good. And why install new monitors every 5 meters or so along the platform? There is a lot of waste that could be cut.

I think it's hard to justify raising fares when you're extending so many lines and increasing ridership and thus lowering the quality of the service you're providing. Charging more for less is what they're trying to do.