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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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 Posted: Fri May 03, 2013 4:32 am Post subject: 2 Bus routes in Seoul run all night with more to come |
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http://kojects.com/2013/04/11/seoul-to-begin-night-bus-services/
http://kojects.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/screen-shot-2013-04-12-at-12-21-11-am.jpg
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One question that is often asked by many while living in Seoul is why there is no public transport in the earliest hours of the morning. This will soon change when two new night bus services begin operating across Seoul from April 19 with more to come later in the year.
The two routes N26 and N37 stretch across Seoul to make getting home late easier for citizens The N26 route travels: Western Seoul Depot � Hongdae � Sinchon � Jongno � Cheongnyangni � Mangu � Jungnang Depot and the N37 route is: Jingwan Depot � Seodaemun � Jongno � Gangnam Station � Daechidong � Garak Market � Songpa Depot. The services will initially run every 35-40 minutes from midnight until 5am and will cost the same fare as standard city buses. (Note that the last buses of the night leave the depot at 3:10am.)
If the routes aren�t much help to you then don�t fret because six more night services going to other places in Seoul are also planned to begin in July. �Current Affairs Factory� (시사공작소) has published a map of all the future services though it doesn�t appear to be an official image. One confusing point is that TOPIS has announced the bus numbers as N26 and N37, but other media is reporting route numbers as routes 1-8.
According to the Chosun Ilbo, late running buses were trialled last December to dissipate demand for taxis in the midst of a rising trend of drivers refusing to take passengers. The buses were a success and Seoul�s transport planners hope that the new night services will give citizens the option of a cheap and safe way home in the wee hours. Night drivers will also be separately recruited to operate the buses and vehicles will be fitted with a speed restriction device which doesn�t allow the bus to travel over 70 km/h.
For a megacity that often finishes work late and with a culture of staying up after hours, the move seems obvious. It will be interesting to see whether taxi drivers take exception to the new services as they are bound to prove popular once word gets out. Drunken behavior and security issues are often an issue on early morning services in other countries, and this may be something that comes up once people begin using them.
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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Fri May 03, 2013 4:33 am Post subject: |
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First Survey of Seoul�s Night Bus Services
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Since April 19 there are buses operating through the whole night on two routes in Seoul. The transport division of Seoul City Government published some statistics about the usage of the night bus. This survey is very important because it helps the city government to decide if operation should continue and expand or not.
During the first week of service 11,709 people used the two night lines. N26 had 2,606 passengers and N37 transported 5,103 people. This means that there are around 2,000 people per night riding the bus. Citizens adapted very fast to the new lines: On the first day only 923 people used the service, whereas a week later already 1,955 people used it. The lowest number was 723 people on a Monday (that makes sense).
The purpose of the night lines isn�t to transport drunk people home from clubs like a lot of people interpreted it. According to a Korea.net article about the night lines, a city official said that the real purpose is to transport women, people who are disadvantaged and workers who do night shifts. Now the statistics show that 56.2 % passengers were �call-drivers� (대리운전기사, the guys you can call and they drive you in your own car home). Only 12.3 % of the passenger have been female.
What do the statistics tell us?
The low number of female passengers means that they have to improve the service further if they want to attract more female passengers. It has to be investigated why the number of women is so low. Could it be that it�s safer for a women to take a taxi? Another issue is the high share of call-drivers: Is it a good thing that other people can drink until late and get easier than before a call-driver? Of course, the call-drivers benefit from the service (lower expenses, can earn more money etc.) but I don�t think that this is the main purpose of the night buses. The survey will continue until July and then the night bus service may be expanded by six more lines.
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highstreet
Joined: 13 Nov 2010
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| Posted: Fri May 03, 2013 5:09 am Post subject: |
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| What's wrong with call-drivers using the buses? Those guys probably make crap wages as it is. |
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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 12:01 pm Post subject: |
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| With more lines to come in July this could become a big thing in Seoul. |
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Dodge7
Joined: 21 Oct 2011
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| Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 4:29 pm Post subject: |
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| haha I love it to think how mad this will make the taxi drivers who like to charge 2x's, 3x's the rate after hours. |
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nicwr2002
Joined: 17 Aug 2011
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| Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 5:41 pm Post subject: |
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I'm sure that the taxi unions or whatever will complain about and get a law passed that bans the use of buses after a certain time. They will claim that it takes too much money away from them and that if they don't get this law passed that many taxi services will go out of business.
Or they will say that there needs to be another fare increase to off set the amount of people taking the bus. |
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jvalmer
Joined: 06 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 5:17 am Post subject: |
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| Why not keep some subway lines open? Also have the national railway offer overnight trains at least hourly on their main lines into the provinces. |
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javis
Joined: 28 Feb 2013
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| Posted: Sun May 05, 2013 8:13 am Post subject: |
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| nicwr2002 wrote: |
I'm sure that the taxi unions or whatever will complain about and get a law passed that bans the use of buses after a certain time. They will claim that it takes too much money away from them and that if they don't get this law passed that many taxi services will go out of business.
Or they will say that there needs to be another fare increase to off set the amount of people taking the bus. |
I can see it now.
"Seoul is killing Taxi driver families." |
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