Gwangju City Successfully Establishes "Cashless City Bus" System

Cashless City Bus. Provided by Gwangju City

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On August 20, the Gwangju City Government announced that the "cashless city bus" system, which has been fully implemented since August 1, has been smoothly established without causing inconvenience or confusion for citizens.

The "cashless city bus" initiative began in April with the phased removal of cash boxes from all 1,044 city buses operating on 102 routes over a period of four months, and has been fully enforced since August.

Even without a transportation card, citizens can pay fares through one of the following methods: account transfer guided by the driver, purchasing a prepaid transportation card, or issuing a mobile transportation card based on a QR code.

The city expects to save 520 million won annually in maintenance and management costs by removing cash boxes. In addition, the city anticipates improved safety on city buses, a more pleasant environment, greater transparency in revenue management, and increased operational efficiency of the quasi-public bus system.

Prior to introducing the system, the city conducted thorough preparations and tailored promotional campaigns. From December of last year, a four-month pilot program was carried out to build public consensus, and the direction of the project was determined by gathering feedback from a survey of about 5,000 citizens as well as opinions from the Gwangju City Council and experts.

In particular, to minimize inconvenience for digitally vulnerable groups such as seniors, individuals with low credit, and foreigners, the city diversified cashless payment options. Over the past four months, there were 32,163 account transfer transactions and 405 prepaid transportation card sales. Mobile transportation cards using QR codes were also issued.

Additionally, in connection with the "Gwangju G-Pass" introduced in January, campaigns were held at traditional markets and Bitgoeul Senior Town. As a result, the number of senior K-Pass enrollments increased by 380%, from 1,689 in December 2024 to 8,111 in July 2025.

Going forward, the city plans to actively incorporate on-site feedback to further improve the efficiency and convenience of account transfer operations. The city will also conduct inspections of operations, including personal information collection and fare management, as well as benchmarking other local governments. Based on these efforts, improvement measures such as streamlining operational procedures will be established by the end of this year.

Bae Sangyoung, head of the Public Transportation Division, stated, "This year is an important time for laying the foundation for public transportation innovation, including the introduction of cashless buses, the implementation of the Gwangju G-Pass, and route restructuring. We will continue to communicate with citizens to promote bus policies that have a real impact."

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