Songpa-gu in Seoul is adding a fifth vehicle to community bus Route 02 starting Monday to ease commute-hour delays and reduce inconvenience for residents. The district said the expansion — up from four vehicles — is intended to shorten headways, improve on-time performance and make public transit more reliable for daily riders.
Route 02 connects Starfield City Wirye and Suseo Station, serving commuters and daily travelers passing through the Wirye new town and the Jangji-Munjeong corridor. As of June, the route carried an average of 1,771 passengers a day — about 51 percent of the district's total community bus ridership of 3,448.
Despite that heavy demand, the 11.6-kilometer route had been operating with just four vehicles and no spare, placing a growing burden on each bus. Residents had repeatedly raised concerns about uneven headways and poor punctuality during peak hours.
The situation was particularly acute when a breakdown reduced the fleet to three vehicles, pushing wait times to as long as 22 to 25 minutes during rush hour. Adding a fifth bus is meant to prevent that scenario.
The additional vehicle will cut headways by four to five minutes and ease the operational load on each bus, reducing service gaps caused by maintenance. The district also expects the change to improve punctuality and overall service reliability when unexpected breakdowns occur.
Songpa-gu has been refining its community bus network since the service launched in December 2022, incorporating resident feedback and ridership data. Last July, the district extended Routes 02 and 03 and added vehicles to both lines as part of a broader push to expand resident-centered transit services.
Following this expansion of Route 02 — the district's busiest community bus line — Songpa-gu plans to add vehicles to Route 01 in September. The district said it will continue addressing resident complaints and adjusting services to strengthen everyday public transit.
"This expansion of Route 02 is a direct response to the scheduling problems that residents found most frustrating during their commutes," district mayor Seo Gang-seok said. "We will keep resolving transit inconveniences one by one so that Songpa can become an even better place to live."
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