Mir City Transportation Reform, Part 3
The next morning, in the president's office of Seongil Transportation.
"Absolutely not!"
President Nam Seong-il bellowed the moment he laid eyes on Yun-hyeok.
"It's absolutely out of the question! Increasing the subway runs? You came here to get my consent for that, didn't you? Because of the massive stink I kicked up at City Hall last time? Well, I will never agree to it! I'm fully prepared to drag this through the mud again to protect my company!"
Sitting on the sofa in the executive conference room on the third floor of Seongil Transportation's headquarters, Yun-hyeok found the situation slightly absurd.
To think he'd be this defensive right off the bat.
"Sir, the reason I came here today is—"
"No, you're the one who doesn't understand. Listen to me. I get that those young folks riding the subway are inconvenienced. Okay! I acknowledge that. And the time they waste on the platforms every year, the stress—yes, I acknowledge that too! But look at this."
President Nam Seong-il grabbed a business card holder stuffed with 230 of his employees' cards and slammed it down on the table.
Licking his thumb, he began flipping through the pages with a sharp rustle.
"Look at these people. These are our bus drivers. Their average age is in the fifties. Sure, we have young people in our company too—most of the office staff are young. But look at the drivers! If they increase the subway runs, our company's operations will take a hit. We'll have to sell off buses and lay off drivers. Where are these people supposed to go, and how are they supposed to make a living? Who's going to hire someone in their fifties?"
"..."
"I heard you're an aspiring politician. That's not how you do politics!"
Spittle flew from Nam Seong-il's mouth.
"Just to resolve a little inconvenience—having young people wait ten more minutes on a platform and wake up ten minutes earlier? You want me to fire drivers who are over fifty? Does that sound right to you? Huh? Honestly!"
The president bellowed.
"Why can't you young people just suck it up and bear with it?!"
"Well... President Nam..."
Yun-hyeok stared at Nam Seong-il, utterly dumbfounded. The president huffed and puffed before gulping down a glass of water.
"I got a bit too worked up. My apologies. But seriously, this is a hard no. I'm not doing this just so I can live well. For those young people, it's a matter of minor inconvenience, but for us, it's a matter of survival. The drivers here all have families and children to feed. If they lose their jobs at their age, where are they going to find work? How will they survive? Have you actually come up with a countermeasure for that?! Have you?!"
"Yes, I have."
"Exactly! So you... wait, what?"
Nam Seong-il's face went blank.
"What... what did you just say?"
"I have a win-win model that allows for both the increase of subway runs and the preservation of Seongil Transportation's workload."
"That... that's actually possible?"
"Would you like to hear it?"
Yun-hyeok opened his laptop and booted up his presentation.
And two days after that.
Kim Min-cheol, the Planning and Coordination Director of Mir City Hall, was faced with a situation so shocking it completely erased the memory of his previous astonishment during the last presentation.
This was something he hadn't even dared to imagine.
"To think President Nam Seong-il would actually show up at the negotiation table."
He had no idea what Lee Yun-hyeok had done, but the young man had somehow coaxed and persuaded Nam Seong-il into sitting down for a transportation negotiation.
"Ahem."
Nam Seong-il cleared his throat and pointed at Yun-hyeok.
"This fellow insisted I come... Nothing is set in stone yet. We'll have to see how the negotiations go here. Well..."
True to his notoriously prickly nature, he crossed his arms and glared at Kim Min-cheol with a grumpy expression. To Kim Min-cheol, however, the mere fact that Nam Seong-il had shown up was nothing short of a miracle.
"What kind of proposal did you make?"
Kim Min-cheol asked Yun-hyeok.
"Before we begin, do you mind if I record this? It's for my YouTube channel."
Yun-hyeok gestured to his camera.
"Of course."
"Do as you please!"
Yun-hyeok set up the camera and began his presentation.
"Seongil Transportation's regional buses have driven company revenue through fares collected on the route from the terminal to Pangyo. If we increase the train runs at Mir Station, they will suffer direct financial damage. Therefore..."
Yun-hyeok continued.
"Let's convert a portion of the regional buses into city buses."
"Are you suggesting we expand the city bus routes?"
The head of the Transportation Department asked.
"We can add a few new routes, and for others, we can simply add more buses to reduce the dispatch intervals."
Yun-hyeok pulled up a data slide based on the petition signed by over ten thousand residents.
"The petition data I gathered doesn't just contain names and contact information; it also includes the residents' addresses."
Kim Min-cheol's shoulders twitched.
"Although the addresses only go down to the neighborhood level, this was enough to estimate the residential areas of the passengers who have consistently used Mir Station over the past three weeks."
The data flashed onto the screen.
Yeok-dong, Jungang-dong, Baekryeong-dong, Gwangmyeong-dong, Tanseo-dong, Eungang-eup, Haewon-eup, Hawol-myeon
"These are the areas where the citizens who use the subway are heavily concentrated. I went ahead and investigated the bus dispatch intervals for each of these regions."
Without exaggeration, Kim Min-cheol felt his breath catch in his throat.
How is this even possible?
A private citizen with absolutely no administrative authority had single-handedly gathered government-level raw data through sheer legwork, and used it to draft a comprehensive urban transportation reform plan?
How on earth is this possible?
The more he looked at it, the more unrealistic it felt, creating a profound sense of cognitive dissonance. How could a single individual whip up something that would normally require a veteran logistics expert with twenty or thirty years of experience in the Transportation Department?
"...The interval for Bus 21, which runs from Jungang-dong to Mir Station, is extremely long at twenty-six minutes. According to my research on the local Carrot Market community and various mom cafes, the residents in this area are highly sensitive to morning bus schedules. If they miss a bus, they end up taking a taxi..."
This was no longer a negotiation; it was a lecture.
It was a masterclass in urban planning, taught by an administrative genius to a room full of novices.
"...The buses traveling from the Seongsan District to Mir Station are Route 16 and Route 22. However, Route 22 originates in Tanseo-dong, and because a significant number of passengers board there, the congestion level is already incredibly high by the time it reaches Seongsan. Therefore..."
Now Kim Min-cheol understood why Nam Seong-il had agreed to show up.
The city bus conversion policy wasn't just an enticing idea; it came with a fully realized, concrete roadmap.
This wasn't a simple plan to increase subway runs.
This is a complete overhaul of the entire city's transportation network.
That was why Nam Seong-il couldn't afford to stay away. The entire city's transit system was about to be revolutionized, and if he didn't participate, he would be left behind entirely.
"Bus 28 runs from Gwangmyeong-dong to Mir Station, but the route is highly circuitous. As a result, residents of Jungang-dong avoid boarding there directly. Instead, they walk toward the Seongsan District to use the Illae Middle School stop. It would be far more efficient to establish a brand-new route here."
Just like last time, Lee Yun-hyeok had already completed all the budget and revenue calculations.
"Based on city bus fares, regional bus fares, and the projected demand of the residents in the areas I mentioned, converting these routes to city buses will result in a slight dip in Seongil Transportation's revenue. Approximately eleven percent."
Lee Yun-hyeok explained.
"But no jobs will be lost, and the subsidies currently provided by City Hall will remain largely intact. Furthermore, as the bus and subway networks are restructured, more citizens will take city buses to reach Mir Station. The demand will rise beyond our current projections. Therefore, the actual revenue loss will be even lower than eleven percent—likely in the single digits."
"Well... um..."
Nam Seong-il asked hesitantly.
"Can't City Hall subsidize the difference in revenue?"
"No, they cannot,"
Yun-hyeok replied flatly.
"Wait..."
Flustered, Nam Seong-il looked toward the City Hall officials.
"Isn't whether that's possible or not up to the Transportation Department and the Budget Director here?"
But before they could answer, Yun-hyeok cut in again.
"That is true, but this is also a policy of my design. Even under a semi-public operating system, I strongly oppose using taxpayer money to bail out a private enterprise in that manner."
"..."
"However,"
Yun-hyeok stepped closer to President Nam Seong-il.
"this is the final opportunity left for Seongil Transportation."
He leaned in toward Nam Seong-il, slamming the petition containing over ten thousand signatures onto the table with a sharp thwack.
"This isn't just policy jargon or political pressure. This is the raw, pent-up demand of Mir City."
"Demand...?"
Mir City's youth population was growing by a thousand people every year, driven by an influx of workers from Pangyo. Most of them preferred to rent studio apartments near the subway station. For young people, the subway was far more familiar and convenient than commuting via regional buses.
As time went on, the demand for the subway would inevitably eclipse that of regional buses. No matter what kind of lobbying, protests, or civil complaints President Nam Seong-il mobilized, he would eventually run headfirst into an unstoppable force.
The expansion of subway runs was the natural trajectory of this city. There was only so much a single bus company could do to block it.
And if Nam Seong-il missed this chance to compromise and let time slip away...
"By then, City Hall might have already partnered with other bus companies to complete the city bus restructuring."
Nam Seong-il swallowed hard.
"President Nam, I'm telling you to make a compromise now, while the city still has the demand to support it. I am already being incredibly generous here. City Hall has no obligation to look out for a single private company to this extent. We are only doing this because the semi-public system allows our interests to align."
"B-but..."
"Director Kim!"
Lee Yun-hyeok swept the documents aside.
"I'll bring in a different bus company instead of Seongil Transportation. Give the city bus routes to them."
"Wait, wait! Alright! I get it!"
Terrified, Nam Seong-il shrieked and reached out to stop him.
"I'll do it! I agree! Let's restructure the city buses...!"
"A wise choice. What about the Transportation Department?"
Yun-hyeok asked, looking at the head of the Transportation Department and Kim Min-cheol.
"From our perspective, this is an absolutely brilliant policy!"
The head of the Transportation Department accepted immediately.
"We will develop the route planning further based on the data you provided, Mr. Yun-hyeok. Honestly, it looks complete enough to use as-is, but we still need to run it through our internal review process."
The department head then turned to Kim Min-cheol.
"Director, what do you think...?"
"..."
Director Kim Min-cheol stared blankly at Yun-hyeok for a moment before finally speaking.
"We will officially name this the 'Mir City Transportation Reform Policy' and initiate it starting today."
"I have one more favor to ask, Director."
Yun-hyeok said.
While it was true he had pulled off this grueling policy planning for the public good, he also had to secure his political career.
A politician had to be an expert at self-promotion.
"Once this policy is implemented, please include my name in the official promotional materials as the citizen policy proposer."
"..."
Kim Min-cheol's shoulders tensed.
He was a man loyal to the incumbent Mayor, Baek Hyeong-guk.
Lee Yun-hyeok could very well become a formidable rival to Baek Hyeong-guk's reelection.
By putting Lee Yun-hyeok's name on the official publications as the policy proposer, Kim Min-cheol would essentially be nurturing his master's enemy.
"Understood."
Yet, truth be told...
Kim Min-cheol had grown intensely curious. He wanted to see how this city would transform if that thirty-one-year-old unemployed civilian actually held the administrative power of a mayor.
This man is a political superhuman.
He had dangled a carrot in front of the notoriously stubborn Seongil Transportation, held a whip in his other hand, and forced them to sign a compromise. His negotiation skills easily rivaled those of a seasoned Member of the National Assembly.
And that overwhelming administrative competence. This level of skill was easily on par with a two- or three-term local government leader. It was certainly something the first-term Mayor Baek Hyeong-guk couldn't even dream of replicating.
Where on earth did a freak of nature like this come from?
Of course, it all stemmed from Lee Yun-hyeok's accumulated experience from his previous lives.
After all, he had already served five terms as a Member of the National Assembly, and had even been the Mayor of Seoul.