The First Step Toward Public Operation

The meeting room stirred.

"National subsidies, you say? You're telling us you can secure national funding for city bus operations?"

I nodded with confidence.

"That's correct. We are pursuing two national subsidy programs.

The first is the BRT project — establishing a metropolitan bus rapid transit line with Gwangseong City. Yeojin City's population is shrinking, but our connectivity with neighboring Gwangseong is only growing stronger.

Right now, despite heavy traffic demand, we have no proper regional transit network. To fix this, we plan to work with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to build a BRT line and secure partial funding for its operating costs."

"And the second program?"

I continued, as if I had been waiting for exactly that question.

"The second is a transportation subsidy program through the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's current policy stance is to not directly subsidize municipal bus operations — meaning that securing national funds through them is realistically impossible. But the moment you approach this problem as an issue of welfare, the story changes entirely."

The councilors leaned in, visibly interested.

"Right now, transit-vulnerable groups — the elderly, teenagers, basic livelihood security recipients — account for a very high share of city bus ridership. Yet there is no dedicated policy support guaranteeing their right to mobility. So we intend to apply to the Ministry of Health and Welfare for a transportation subsidy program. Through it, we can subsidize fares for these groups while simultaneously easing the city's financial burden."

"So you're saying you'll secure the budget through the Ministry of Health and Welfare instead of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport?"

I nodded.

"Exactly. Since the transport ministry's position is 'figure it out yourselves, municipalities,' any funding request we make will almost certainly be turned down. The health and welfare ministry, however, is the one ministry that can frame transit access as a welfare issue. And if we launch it as the nation's first transportation welfare pilot program, the central government is very likely to take notice."

The meeting room began to murmur again. A few councilors flipped through their materials with meaningful expressions on their faces.

"The nation's first pilot program... That's certainly worth attempting."

"If this approach actually works, we could reduce the city's financial burden while improving public transit convenience at the same time."

I could feel the atmosphere slowly shifting. Of course, some councilors remained skeptical.

"Mr. Mayor, what happens if the national funding falls through?"

I produced the answer I had prepared in advance.

"We've arranged a contingency budget in case the subsidy fails. There are adjustments we can make within the existing city budget, and those will allow us to operate the public system stably, at least in the short term."

Finally, I swept my gaze slowly across the councilors.

"Yeojin City stands at a critical crossroads right now. Do we continue down the old path of depending on a private operator, or do we transform our transit system with a new approach? This is the most realistic moment Yeojin City has ever had to change."

A brief silence settled over the room. Then the chairman took the microphone.

"Today's discussion is certainly worth serious review. The city council will continue to monitor this matter closely, keeping an eye on the upcoming national subsidy negotiations and the funding plan."

I bowed my head in response.

"Thank you. I will share every step of the process transparently."

After the meeting adjourned, Division Chief Kim Jin-soo came over and asked quietly,

"Mr. Mayor, there was less resistance than we expected."

I gave a wry smile.

"The councilors aren't blind to reality. They've simply accepted that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the direction we've prepared is the reasonable one."

Chief of Staff Kang Seol-heon approached quietly with a question of her own.

"How did you know the Woosoo Bus CEO would decide to sell this quickly? Founders usually pass their companies down to their children, don't they?"

I answered lightly, as if it were nothing.

"Do you remember? During the campaign we held a roundtable with local business owners, and CEO Kim Hak-jin was there. When he heard which university you and I went to, he mentioned his own children went to the same school — that they're now working as a lawyer and a doctor. All settled in Seoul, none of them remaining in the region. You remember that, don't you?"

I went on.

"Children who've already built stable lives in Seoul have no reason to come down here and run Woosoo Bus. On top of that, the bus business itself isn't easy to run these days — so from CEO Kim's perspective, the dilemma over whether he could even hand it down must have been weighing on him heavily. That's why I figured a little more pressure would bring a quick conclusion."

Chief Kang stared at me in astonishment.

"You met these people once on the campaign trail, and you were keeping track of all that?"

I smiled.

"They're not exactly simple people, are they? While I was campaigning, I kept thinking about how I would actually run Yeojin City, so it all came back to me naturally. Don't be too surprised."

A moment later, Chief Kang spoke again.

"Mr. Mayor, all that remains now is preparation for the national funding."

I shook my head and said quietly,

"The core of this bus reform is the public bus system and the route restructuring. That's what we can execute right now, and it's what we must push through without fail. The metropolitan BRT and the transportation welfare funding I reported to the council today have to wait until autumn — there's still time for those."

Then I rose from my seat and added,

"First, we wrap up the acquisition quickly and move straight into route restructuring. Every step must be finished within a month. We don't have time to spare."

At that moment, Planning and Budget Division Chief Noh Chae-eun and Public Transportation Division Chief Kim Jin-soo — who had been listening nearby — went pale.

Chief Noh opened her mouth carefully.

"Mr. Mayor, city administration cannot move as fast as a private company. To finalize the budget and execute a project, we'd need to prepare this year and hope to launch next year. If we cut corners on procedure, it will come back to bite us later."

I swallowed my frustration and replied calmly.

"I understand that perfectly well. But we have to start with what we can do right now. First, we draft the route restructuring plan, and in parallel we launch a public awareness campaign so citizens aren't caught off guard. We review what's achievable within this year's budget, request a budget amendment from the city council, and push forward as fast as we possibly can."

Then I added, with finality:

"Starting right now."

Yeojin City's public bus system was becoming reality.

Over the following days, the paperwork for acquiring the bus company moved through at remarkable speed, and at last the purchase and takeover were completed without a hitch.

But once I saw the company's actual condition with my own eyes, the situation proved worse than I had imagined. Most of the vehicles were aging clunkers, and the interiors were worn down. Maintenance had been neglected so badly that breakdowns were constant, and the intervals between departures swung wildly.

Yet the gravest problem of all was how the drivers were treated. Low wages, wretched working conditions, endless hours. Expecting buses to run reliably under those conditions was a fantasy.

"In this state, bringing in the public system was never a choice — it was a necessity."

I set the report down and spoke firmly. Chief of Staff Kang Seol-heon nodded beside me.

"It's far worse than expected. Improving the employees' working conditions is urgent as well."

I stood up quietly from my chair.

"Let's launch the village buses first. Before any sweeping overhaul, we need to build a small, visible success."

The village bus operation came together more easily than I'd anticipated. First, we linked two of the rural townships into a single route. The course wound through each village hall, stopped at the township office, and finally ran all the way to the old downtown terminal.

The whole process took just three days. The real problem was the guidance system — since these weren't official bus routes yet, the stops weren't properly marked, and citizens hadn't been adequately informed.

But that too was solved quickly.

"Have every township office post a notice, and announce it over the village broadcast system. Put bus timetables up at the village halls and township office entrances immediately. Even if it's printed on plain A4 paper — we start today."

Administration too slow? No, it isn't.

I planned to inspect the route myself, riding the bus.

"I'll be on the first bus tomorrow morning. So have everything ready by tonight."

The civil servants' eyes went wide. But there was no time left to waste.

Astonishingly, the village buses were packed from the very first day. At dawn, the elderly filled the buses on their way to hospitals and markets; through the morning and afternoon rush, they were crowded with students heading to and from school.

I hadn't expected such an enthusiastic response from day one.

Then came a call I hadn't anticipated. The schools and the local education office reached out with formal words of thanks.

With so much rural land on its outskirts, Yeojin City had always struggled with getting students to and from school. The city's subsidy for school bus operations alone came to 3 million won a month.

Yeojin had twenty townships, each with at least one school — meaning the annual bill ran to over 700 million won.

Now that cost could be saved. Admittedly, this year's funds had already been disbursed to the schools and couldn't be clawed back.

But from here on, the savings could be reinvested in other education programs — which meant, in the end, the benefits flowing back to students would only grow. An unexpected and welcome side effect.

Though ridership was full from the first day and satisfaction ran high, there were lessons too. From ten to noon, and from two to four in the afternoon, the buses ran empty; from eight to ten at night, not a single passenger boarded.

No one in the countryside stays out until late in the evening. Those hours clearly needed adjusting.

Out of consideration for the drivers, we had been running a bus every thirty minutes; we changed it to hourly intervals.

But this adjustment wasn't purely a good thing. Miss your bus, and you could find yourself waiting an hour at the terminal.

Demand-responsive transit — DRT — would be the obvious answer, but the problem, as always, was the budget. On top of that, unlike the big cities, Yeojin had no real-time bus arrival information system at all.

Even if we pushed to build one this year, it wouldn't come online until the second half of the year. This, too, had to be resolved quickly.

As soon as the village buses began operating, feedback started pouring in — and surprisingly, the city councilors were the first to react.

"Mr. Mayor, the local residents' response is absolutely on fire. Praise is pouring in — people say getting from the villages into town has never been easier!"

The residents over eighty were especially delighted.

"Now I feel like I can keep on living! The bus stops right in front of the village hall — it's so convenient. Before, just walking to the bus stop wore me out. Now I can finally live like a proper human being!"

The assumption that running village buses would cost a fortune had, it turned out, been the wrong call all along. It was a problem we could solve comfortably within the existing budget — and now far more citizens were benefiting from it.

An unexpected reaction also came from the civil servants themselves.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Mr. Mayor, this bus has made business trips so much easier."

"Our travel allowances were so small that most of us paid out of pocket. Now that we ride the village buses, we save money and skip the whole hassle of settling travel expenses one by one."

A single small change had produced a profound effect.

One more achievement was the creation of new jobs. Most of the drivers who took over the village bus routes had previously been running private academy shuttles in nearby cities.

"With the academy shuttles, the work was never steady, so my income swung all over the place. But as a village bus driver, I get a regular monthly salary, and with the two-shift schedule my time off is guaranteed — it's far more stable."

The two-shift system improved the drivers' working conditions and gave them better treatment than they'd ever had before.

The village bus was no longer just a means of transportation — it had become a core policy improving the quality of life for the region's residents.

There were still plenty of problems left to solve: adjusting departure intervals, building ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a real-time bus arrival information system, securing long-term funding, and more.

But the village bus had delivered results.