First Weekday After Gwangju Bus Route Overhaul... City Pulls Out All Stops to Ease Public Inconvenience

More than 880 complaints in three days; 80% about routes

Calls for improvements over transfer difficulties and confusion about stop names

Early use of Urban Railway Line 2 station names also caused confusion

City to provide on-site guidance through Nov. 6; improvement plan by year-end

With Gwangju’s city bus routes undergoing major changes for the first time in nine years, inquiries and complaints from residents continued, with more than 880 complaints filed within three days of the changes taking effect. Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City has responded by assigning staff to major bus stops to provide guidance and carrying out facility improvements.

According to Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City, more than 880 complaints were received by the Route Change Situation Room from October 31, when the revised city bus routes took effect, through the morning of November 2. More than 540 complaints were filed on October 31, the first day of implementation, and more than 140 on November 1. Another 200 or so came in on the morning of November 2, the first weekday morning commute and school period since the changes took effect.

People wait for buses operating on revised routes at a bus stop in front of Gwangju Bus Terminal in Gwangcheon-dong, Seo-gu, Jeonnam Gwangju, on the morning of the 2nd. Yonhap News Agency

About 80% of the complaints were questions about routes and directions, including which bus to take to reach a destination. Residents also reported difficulties with transfers and noted that the revised routes were not shown at some bus stops.

Confusion arose in particular because the names of stations on Phase 1 of Urban Railway Line 2, which is scheduled to open in December 2028, had been applied to bus stops in advance. Facility improvements were also inadequate, with the changed names not properly reflected at some stops.

The city said it had changed the stop names to align with the opening schedule for Urban Railway Line 2. Phase 1 of Line 2 was originally scheduled to open at the end of 2027, so the city coordinated the bus route changes with it, but the opening was delayed by a further year.

Kim Youngsun, director of the Integrated Transportation Bureau, said, "If we had not made the changes now, they could have caused further inconvenience when Urban Railway Line 2 opens, so we decided to implement them earlier."

Kim Youngseon (center), director of the Integrated Transportation Bureau of Jeonnam-Gwangju Unified Special City, explains the inconveniences caused by changes to city bus routes and measures to address them at a press gathering at Gwangju City Hall on the 2nd. Photo by Song Bohyun

To reduce inconvenience for residents, Gwangju Special City will assign public officials to major bus stops through November 6 to provide route information. The Route Change Situation Room will operate from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and staffing at the complaint call center has been increased to 28. The city plans to address inadequate facility improvements, including bus stop names and route signage, by the end of the first week of November.

Kim said, "I think confusion will be unavoidable through November 4," adding, "We will assign public officials and volunteers to major bus stops to minimize inconvenience for residents."

This is the first major adjustment to the routes in nine years, since 2017. The number of city buses will remain at 1,000, while the number of routes will increase by 12, from 103 to 115, and the number of daily trips will rise by 535.

Routes connecting major hubs, including universities and terminals, have been made more direct, and an express service system has been introduced on long-distance routes. In 30 areas where bus service had been inconvenient, including Cheomdan, Singa, Seonun, Seongyo and Naenam districts, a total of 46.2 km of routes have been added or extended, and 99 new bus stops have been installed. Area names such as "Cheomdan," "Sangmu" and "Jinwol," which previously appeared at the beginning of route numbers, have also been removed.

City buses in Gwangju carry between 280,000 and 320,000 passengers a day. Gwangju Special City plans to analyze data on bus ridership and operations through the end of the year, assess the impact of the route changes and develop improvements.

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