40 Substitute Chartered Buses for Gimpo Gold Line to Be Deployed Starting the 24th

To alleviate passenger overcrowding on the Gimpo Urban Railway, 40 charter buses will be deployed during the morning rush hour.

On the 14th, passengers using the Gimpo Gold Line, notorious as the "Hell Train" due to overcrowding during rush hours, are disembarking at Seoul Gimpo Airport Station, where problems such as patients experiencing breathing difficulties continue to occur. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

Gimpo City announced on the 17th that it has received support from Gyeonggi Province for 40 charter buses (45 seats each) to help disperse passengers on the Gimpo Urban Railway, and plans to operate them starting from the 24th.

The operating hours will be from 6 to 8 a.m., during the morning rush hour, with intervals of 3 to 5 minutes. The buses will not operate during the evening rush hour.

The routes and stops are currently under discussion between Gimpo City and Gyeonggi Province, but it is highly likely that the buses will run express from specific stations experiencing overcrowding directly to the terminal station, Seoul Gimpo Airport Station.

Gimpo City expects that by fully loading these charter buses, about 30% (around 3,600) of the approximately 12,000 passengers during the morning rush hour on the Gimpo Gold Line can be dispersed. Additionally, the number of charter buses will be gradually increased to 80.

However, since there is not yet a dedicated bus lane around Gimpo Airport Station, passengers may experience inconvenience due to traffic congestion for some time.

A Gimpo City official stated, "No matter how many charter buses we add, it will be ineffective if the road conditions toward Seoul do not improve, so we have repeatedly requested Seoul City to expedite the establishment of dedicated bus lanes," adding, "We will prepare to operate the charter buses without any setbacks to alleviate citizen inconvenience."

Meanwhile, the Gimpo Gold Line is a fully automated electric train running a total distance of 23.67 km from Hangang New Town to Seoul Line 9 Gimpo Airport Station. It has been plagued by complaints due to passenger overcrowding during rush hours. From January this year to the 11th of this month, 18 safety incidents have occurred.

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