Starting Tomorrow, Seoul City Buses Will Operate at 20% Reduced Capacity After 9 PM (Comprehensive)

Seoul Declares Pause for 10 Million Citizens in Line with Greater Seoul Area's Enhanced Social Distancing Level 2.5
Except for 20 High-Passenger Routes, Service Reduced to Weekend Levels... Encouraging Early Return and Avoidance of Outings

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] During the implementation of 'Social Distancing' Level 2.5 in the Seoul metropolitan area, nighttime operations of Seoul city buses will be reduced by 20% compared to usual. This is a physical measure to encourage citizens to return home early and refrain from group activities to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), and to minimize citizens' movement during nighttime hours.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 30th that from the 31st, city bus operations from 9 PM to midnight will be reduced to 80% of the usual level. Earlier that day, Acting Mayor of Seoul, Seo Jeong-hyeop, stated in a briefing, "We designate the coming week as the 'Ten Million Citizens Pause Week,'" and urged, "Citizens should also refrain from going out and meeting others as much as possible and stop outside activities, committing to thorough daily quarantine measures as if giving up their daily lives."

Accordingly, considering the need to maintain the quality of city bus services while complying with social distancing during the first weekday of the strengthened Ten Million Citizens Pause Week starting at 9 PM on the 31st, Seoul decided to reduce the number of bus operations from the usual 4,554 trips to 3,641 trips. This corresponds to 80% of the normal operation rate.

However, 10 main bus routes with high passenger volume even during evening hours (boarding passengers 36 or more, congestion rate 80%) (Routes 102, 108, 152, 420, 421, 461, 602, 603, 641, 643) and 10 branch bus routes (1135, 1224, 3011, 4212, 5515, 5516, 5523, 6627, 6716, 7612) are excluded from the reduction to minimize inconvenience to citizens.

Furthermore, even after implementing the reduced operations, passenger numbers will be continuously monitored, and if vehicles become congested, the scale of reductions will be adjusted to manage congestion inside the vehicles.

According to Seoul City, since the resurgence of COVID-19 centered in the metropolitan area this month, the average daily number of city bus passengers on weekdays is about 3.25 million, a decrease of approximately 29.0% compared to the average daily passengers of 4.58 million during the same period last year. Passengers after 9 PM account for about 10.2% of the total daily passengers. Seoul expects the decrease in passengers to become more pronounced once the Ten Million Citizens Pause Week measures are implemented.

Hwang Bo-yeon, Director of Urban Transportation at Seoul City, said, "This is a very important time to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the metropolitan area and protect the health and safety of citizens," and added, "We earnestly ask citizens to participate in the Ten Million Citizens Pause Week to quickly restore a vibrant daily life."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.