Gov't to expand K-Pass benefits next year

A subway platform at Seoul Station is crowded with commuters, Thursday. Yonhap

The government will expand the benefits of K-Pass, a monthly public transit pass offering fare discounts, by broadening the scope of discounts available to users starting next year.

Introduced in May last year for subways, buses and the GTX, the existing K-Pass provides refunds of 20 to 53 percent of public transit fares, depending on users’ age groups and regions of residence.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Monday, the new K-Pass introduces additional upper-limit standards that vary by users’ family status and regions of residence. Any amount spent beyond those limits will be refunded.

While retaining the existing K-Pass framework, the updated system introduces new standards ranging from 30,000 won ($20) to 100,000 won. The capital region — Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province — will be subject to the highest thresholds, while less populated regions will have lower standards to provide greater discount benefits to residents. Users with three or more children, lower incomes or those aged 65 or older will also receive greater benefits than users aged 30 to 65 without children.

Although the renewed K-Pass offers three types with different discount rates — the conventional K-Pass, the new K-Pass Ordinary and the new K-Pass Plus — the system automatically selects the option that yields the highest refundable amount for each user. Frequent public transit users are automatically applied the new K-Pass rates, while less frequent users receive the conventional K-Pass rates.

The K-Pass system is among the Lee Jae Myung administration’s 123 national pledges aimed at reducing citizens’ daily living costs. The government plans to expand the program to all local municipalities nationwide. Starting next year, eight municipalities in Gangwon, South Jeolla and North Gyeongsang provinces will join the K-Pass network, bringing the total to 218.

The government said it will continue discussions with the remaining 11 municipalities to introduce the system there.

“The updated K-Pass will be Korea’s irreplaceable public transit welfare policy, easing the financial burden on citizens,” said Kim Yong-seok, chairman of the ministry’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission. “We will continue to upgrade the system to further expand its benefits.”