Seoul commute disrupted by bus strike despite extra subway, shuttle service

Commuters wait for buses at a bus stop near Gwanghwamun in central Seoul, Tuesday, during a bus union strike. Newsis

Seoul’s bus union brought much of the city’s road transit to a standstill on Tuesday, leaving commuters facing severe disruptions across the capital during the morning rush hour. At bus stops around the city, many people waited in the cold, staring at signs showing buses “waiting to be dispatched” or looking at their phones, hoping to squeeze onto the few buses still operating — many at intervals of 30 to 40 minutes or longer.

In the early morning near a bus stop by Gupabal Station in northwestern Seoul, electronic information boards showed many buses that normally arrive in quick succession during rush hour were not yet in service. Some commuters eventually gave up and walked toward the nearest subway station instead.

One office worker surnamed Kim, who was heading to Jung District in central Seoul, said the subway was “much more crowded than usual.”

“My home is a bit far from the subway station, so I normally take a bus, but today I had no choice but to walk all the way despite the cold,” Kim told The Korea Times.

Seoul Station is crowded with commuters in Seoul, Tuesday, the first day of the city bus union strike. Newsis

Subway stations quickly turned into bottlenecks as bus riders switched en masse to rail.

At Yeouido Station, which is served by subway lines 5 and 9, safety staff were deployed to manage the packed crowds, according to the Hankook Ilbo, sister paper of The Korea Times.

“I came to take the subway because of the bus strike, but it was so crowded I had to let two trains go by before I could get on,” Lee Soo-jung, a commuter, said.

“Even on a normal day it’s so crowded that I barely manage to squeeze in, but today was far worse,” said another commuter, Roh Ji-hwa.

The Seoul City Bus Labor Union, affiliated with the Korea Automobile & Transport Workers’ Federation, and the Seoul Bus Transport Business Association, which represents operators, announced early Tuesday that their wage and collective bargaining talks had collapsed. Seoul typically runs 7,382 buses on 394 routes operated by 64 companies, but service largely ground to a halt by the time the morning rush hour began.

With the strike in full effect, only 478 buses ― 6.8 percent of the 7,018 vehicles slated for operation that day ― were running.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon visited the city’s Disaster and Safety Situation Room to review emergency transport measures, urging officials to do what they could to minimize disruptions for residents.

To ease rush-hour congestion, city authorities extended morning subway peak operations by one hour, increasing train frequency from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., and added late-night services, pushing trains on some lines to as late as 2 a.m. the next day.

To link neighborhoods with subway lines, the city’s 25 district offices deployed free shuttle buses connecting residential areas to nearby stations.

City officials said the emergency transport plan comes at a steep cost, noting that additional operations are expected to cost about 1 billion won ($680,000) per day, with chartering private buses accounting for the largest share of the expense.

Yeo Jang-kwon, head of the city government’s Transportation Bureau, pledged to mobilize every means possible to minimize inconvenience, while also urging union members to consider the hardships faced by commuters and return to work soon.

City officials and the bus operators also vowed to take action against any illegal interference aimed at preventing non-striking drivers from operating, saying they would work to ensure that drivers who choose not to participate in the strike can continue driving their routes.

As of 10 p.m., the two sides had yet to reach an agreement.