Hong Taeyong, Mayor of Gimhae, "Gimhae~Busan City Bus Will Change Like This"

On the 12th, Hong Taeyong, mayor of Gimhae City in Gyeongnam Province, explained the reorganization of the city bus routes between Gimhae and Busan to the citizens.

About 100 citizen representatives, including local city and provincial council members, heads of resident autonomy committees from each eup, myeon, and dong, and community leaders, attended the route reorganization briefing held in the city hall auditorium.

Mayor Hong outlined the reasons for the city bus reorganization and introduced the operation routes of the newly established lines.

He shared the future plans for the Gimhae-type semi-public city bus system and the overall city bus reorganization plan with the attendees, answering the numerous questions raised.

He explained the negotiation process with Busan City for the route reorganization, the final negotiation results, the preparation status of alternative routes, and detailed operation routes and intervals for each route.

Hong Tae-yong, Mayor of Gimhae City, Gyeongnam, is explaining the reorganization of the city bus routes between Gimhae and Busan.
[Photo by Gimhae City Hall]

According to the city, this route reorganization was promoted due to the discontinuation of Busan city buses running in Gimhae: 10 buses of route 124, 3 buses of route 125, 26 buses of route 128-1, and 2 buses of route 221.

Gimhae City established alternative routes with 4 buses for route 911, 9 buses for route 912, and 2 buses for route 913, and increased 2 buses for route 220.

The turnaround point for the alternative routes in the Busan area was set at Deokcheon Station, and the discontinuation date was tentatively decided as June 1, but it may be extended until mid-June through further negotiations.

Routes 1004, 123, and 127 will be maintained as they are, among which route 1004 will be reduced from 17 buses to 9, but the late-night bus service will continue for the convenience of citizens.

To improve transportation convenience between Gimhae and western Busan, newly established routes 123-1 with 5 buses and 914 with 3 buses will run between Samgye and Myeongji New Town, and Jangyu and Myeongji New Town, respectively.

Additionally, Busan city buses on routes 123 and 127, which currently pass through the Samgye and Gusan-dong sections without stopping, will be allowed to stop in accordance with the implementation of the Gimhae city bus semi-public system in 2025 to improve transportation convenience for Samgye-dong residents.

The city explained that, except for some long-distance routes expected to cause significant inconvenience to citizens, the reorganization will change the routes mainly to short-distance transfer routes.

Accordingly, although the intervals between buses will be reduced by minimizing traffic congestion and detour sections, the inconvenience of transfers and the fare burden due to transfers may occur, so the city announced that it has agreed with Busan City to abolish the metropolitan transfer fare.

The two cities will finalize the details after technical working-level consultations.

Park Jinyong, head of the Public Transportation Division, said, “Citizens who learned about the discontinuation of Busan city buses through newspapers or broadcasts have expressed concerns and anxieties on the National Petition Board and the city website, so we held this briefing to resolve these issues and answer questions.”

He added, “The reorganization details will be promoted through various methods such as media and online and offline channels, and we hope that the citizen representatives who attended the briefing will widely share the information through various meetings, events, or village and apartment broadcasts.”

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