‘Chipmunk Buses’, whose degree of citizen satisfaction have reached 92.1 points, will begin operation in 3 additional routes (Jangan-Dapsimni, Segok-Suseo, and Sillim). Chipmunk Buses operate to lower the congestion of jam-packed buses during commuting hours between sections with large numbers of passengers.
○ ‘Chipmunk Buses (commuting buses)’ are called so because they operate in short sections as a chipmunk running in a treadwheel. They are customized buses that operate in sections where normal buses become extremely congested during morning rush hours (7:00 am – 9:00 am).
Route | Starting and ending points | Number of buses | Distance | Service interval (min.) |
Number of runs | Operating hours |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
8221 | Jangan 2-dong Community Service Center-Dapsimni Station | 5 | 11.1 ㎞ | 8-13 | 12 | 07:00-09:00 |
8441 | Eungok Village-Suseo Station | 4 | 9.03 ㎞ | 10-13 | 10 | 07:00-09:00 |
8552 | Sillim Welfare Center-Sillim Station | 4 | 7.6 ㎞ | 9-11 | 12 | 07:00-09:00 |
Seoul City selected these new routes considering the degree of congestion of normal buses (more than 60 passengers), the length of the congested section (about 10 km roundtrips), and the congestion duration (about 1 hour).
In addition, since April 16th, Chipmunk Buses will be test-operated in weekday evenings (17:30-19:30) in route No. 8761 (Sinchon Rotary – Korea National Assembly Proceeding Hall), which has the highest degree of congestion during evening rush hours. After monitoring the effect of mitigation on the level of congestion of normal buses, Seoul City will determine whether to expand the operation of Chipmunk Buses to other routes.