It has been found that the number of passengers on the GTX-A route, the metropolitan area rapid transit railway, which has been in operation for a month, is significantly below the government’s expectations.
This inevitably led to a deterioration in profitability, and as the completion of the Samsung Station complex transfer center, which is the most important part of Line A, was delayed, the government was put in a position of having to pay huge compensation to private operators.
It was called a public transportation revolution. Why did this happen? Reporter Daegun Lee reports.
[기자]
When some sections of the GTX-A route opened at the end of last month, passengers’ expectations were high.
This is because the Suseo-Dongtan section is covered in just 20 minutes.
[최낙용 / 서울 신림동 : 일반 지하철보다 (빠른) 시속 180km로 달릴 수 있다고 하니까 신기하고, 또 빠르다고 하면 동탄까지 20분 걸린다고 하니까 버스보다 한 3배는 빠르니까 더 좋죠.]
[박재령 / 경기도 화성시 동탄동 : 일주일마다 학원 때문에 가야 되는데 편리하게 이용할 수 있을 것 같아요. 가격도 저렴하게 탈 수 있는 게 좋은 것 같아요.]
With these expectations, the government set the expected daily number of users at 21,000.
So what is the current situation after a month?
The average number of users per day is only about 7,000, which is one-third of the government’s projection.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport explains that the ‘ramp-up period’ to move to a new means of transportation is not yet sufficient.
However, from the perspective of actual users, accessibility to major stations such as Dongtan Station is poor to take the GTX right away.
This was predicted even before opening.
A bigger problem is the delay in opening all sections.
The completion of the Samsung Station complex transfer center connecting the Paju Unjeong-Seoul Station private sector and the Dongtan-Suseo section, scheduled to open this year, has been postponed again to the second half of 2028.
The Samsung Station Center is in charge of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and if there is no transfer in Gangnam, the number of users will inevitably decrease significantly.
This leads to huge government compensation.
According to the implementation agreement the government signed with a private business operator, if the completion of the Samseong Station Center is delayed and the number of passengers decreases significantly and the operating profit decreases accordingly, the government will make up the difference.
There are projections that we will have to pay tens of billions of won per year from the end of this year until 2028.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport maintains that the compensation forecast is not confirmed, but it cannot refuse to pay the compensation itself, so there is a possibility that it may eventually lead to a dispute with the Seoul Metropolitan Government over the right to indemnification.
This is Daegun Lee from YTN.
Video editing: Ma Young-hoo
Design: Jinho Kim
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