Daejeon to Restrict Cash Boarding on City Buses Starting Next Year... One-Year Pilot Operation

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Daejeon City will launch a pilot operation to restrict (abolish) cash boarding on city buses.

The city announced on the 29th that starting next month on the 1st, cash boarding will be restricted on the Barota B1 (formerly Route 1001) trunk express bus passing through Daejeon~Sejong~Cheongju Osong, allowing bus fare payments only via transportation cards.

This pilot operation is ultimately aimed at restricting cash boarding (making transportation cards exclusive) on all city bus routes within the jurisdiction.

The pilot operation is being promoted in consideration of the decreasing proportion of cash payments for city bus fares, growing concerns about the spread of infectious diseases through currency, and the burden of cash management at the field level.

For example, the city reported that the proportion of city bus fares paid in cash dropped from 2.70% in 2019 to 2.20% last year, and it is expected to fall further to around 1% this year.

In particular, recent concerns that coins and bills could act as vectors for infectious diseases such as COVID-19 have led to an increase in contactless payments across various consumer sectors, which also supports the restriction of cash boarding on city buses.

Additionally, the city explained that the costs of cash management (approximately 150 million KRW annually) and the burden on elderly city bus workers who have to move fare boxes when cash boarding is allowed are difficulties experienced on site.

Accordingly, the city will first restrict cash boarding on 22 Barota B1 trunk express buses and plans to extend the restriction to all city bus routes within the jurisdiction starting July 1 next year.

However, to minimize inconvenience to citizens caused by the cash boarding restriction, the first month of the pilot operation will be a guidance period during which cash revenue boxes (cash boxes) will still be operated in parallel, posters informing about the cash boarding restriction will be posted at bus stops and inside and outside buses, and the restriction will be promoted via LED screens installed inside the buses.

After the pilot operation, the city plans to prepare and apply alternatives to address any shortcomings based on the operational results.

Han Seon-hee, Director of the Transportation and Construction Bureau of the city, said, “The city will focus on actively informing citizens about the operation of the bus cash boarding restriction. We also plan to improve any issues identified during the pilot operation so that the cash boarding restriction can be expanded and applied to all routes starting July 1 next year.”

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