A Chaotic Train of Buses Every Night at Gangnam Station

Buses line up in a jam on the central bus lane near Gangnam Station, Seoul on the evening of May 9, while traffic runs smoothly on the other side of the road.

A train of buses lined one after the other appears every night near Gangnam Station in Seoul. The extreme congestion of buses heading from Sinsa and Nonhyeon to Gangnam Station on the bus lane is the cause of the “bus train.” The buses begin lining up in Nonhyeon, where many express route buses in the Seoul metropolitan area that enter Seoul through Gangnam reach their terminus and head back out of the capital city.

Around 8 p.m. May 9, we took a blue bus and passed through the area in question. The buses began lining up as they passed Sinsa Station. It took seventeen minutes to reach the next bus stop (Nonhyeon Station), which was about 900m away in a straight line. From here to the next stop (Gangnam Station), it took another eleven minutes.

It took nearly half an hour just to pass these two bus stops. A person could travel the distance on foot in just fourteen minutes. According to a bus operation application, a total of four buses with the same route were stuck between Sinsa Station and Gangnam Station.

A, who was waiting for a bus at the bus stop in the middle of the street near Gangnam Station said, “It takes at least over twenty minutes to get from Gangnam Station to Yangjae Station,” and added, “I’ve been working near this area for a year now, but the problem has still not been solved.”

The traffic jam, which repeatedly occurs every night, is a nightmare for bus drivers as well. They all argued that the congestion was due to the surge in the operation of express route buses after the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport banned standing passengers on express routes last November.

Go (59), a bus driver, said, “After they increased the number of express route buses, the traffic jam in this area has been unbelievable.” He continued and said, “In the case of express route buses (leaving the city), they stop at the stops for a long time to get as many passengers as possible to board their buses. It’s harder on Thursdays and Fridays when crowds gather.” Gim Byeong-seon (63), a bus driver on a different route that passed through Gangnam Station said, “I think it usually takes about thirty minutes from when I enter the central bus lane at Sinsa Station to the Gangnam Station crossroads. You can’t imagine the fatigue (when we pass this area).”

The chronic congestion has prevented some bus routes from completing the number of daily trips they are scheduled to make because buses failed to return on time. B, a bus company in Gangbuk-gu, failed to make nine trips last month. A representative of B said, “The situation last month was a record-breaking number of missed trips,” and explained, “The last bus departs at 10:50 p.m. and if the buses don’t return to the garage in time, then we can’t make the last trip, because we can’t guarantee the break time for our drivers.”

The Seoul metropolitan government claims it is trying its best to control the number of express route buses, which travel to congested city centers like Gangnam and Seoul Station. A Seoul city official said, “The bus lanes in this area cannot function properly, so we are examining a variety of options, such as adjusting the bus routes and changing the location of the bus termini.” He also said, “We are reviewing ways to disperse the demand for express routes as much as possible to areas like Jamsil, Gangbyeon and Sadang.”

The transport ministry was also aware of the problem. An official from the Metropolitan Transport Commission said, “We will start a study as early as the first half of this year to examine ways to ease the congestion on bus lanes along Gangnam-daero.”