Urban Public Transportation in Seoul: System, Operation, Use by People

摘要

This paper reviewed the two most predominant public transit modes in Seoul, the subway and bus systems. The contents include important characteristics of these modes in terms of system characteristics, operations, and usage. The SMG plans the second-stage subways with the length of 145km to be completed by year 2,000. The third-stage subways with the length of 120km will start construction in 1999. In total, the subways will include a total of 12 routes with a route length of 400km by the middle of year 2000. For service improvement, SMG plans to provide more accommodation facilities, user information program, and the elevator guide system for the disabled. The SMG plans to keep the privately owned bus systems, but intends to reorganize bus route systems, and to support private bus companies for securing good quality public services. In addition, SMG plans to reduce long distance routes and winding lines, to increase the number of luxury-seat-buses and circular buses, and to replace old buses with air-conditioned buses. For securing consistent high quality services, the city has under consideration a plan to evaluate the service level of each bus company based on the results of customer interview and service monitoring. According to evaluation results, it plans to graduate the financial supports among bus companies. To make transfers between buses and subways more convenient, the SMG plans to integrate different fare collection systems into one by using the above mentioned Bus card system.