Tag: buses

This might be interesting to check out the next time I am in Seoul:

Self-driving transit buses are expanding their presence in Seoul, as the city introduced, Wednesday, a new route in Yeouido, western Seoul. It is the city’s fifth autonomous bus service route.

At 12 p.m., a Hyundai Solati, a diesel minibus accommodating up to 13 people, took to the road around the National Assembly and it drove a round trip of 3.1 kilometers that featured six stops around the parliament. 

Two autonomous buses run every 30 minutes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Monday to Friday, but they do not operate on statutory holidays and weekends. 

Those who want to ride the bus need a smartphone app called TAP!, where users can pre-book a ride by setting their departure and destination.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I read this article and it left me wondering why is the Korean government subsidizing Chinese electric buses and not domestically made ones?:

Concerns have grown over electric buses made in China, which are set to hit the Korean roads within a few months, taking advantage of the handsome subsidy given by the Korean government.

Industry officials point out the government policy may allow Chinese companies to take the lead in the Korean electric vehicle and battery markets, given that the buses are equipped with batteries made in China, the country which has remained reluctant to subsidize batteries produced by Korean companies.

According to industry officials, Wednesday, the Ministry of Environment decided last month to subsidize the eBus-12 made by BYD, China’s largest electric vehicle maker.

The 11-meter-long low-floor bus is powered by a 324-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack also made by BYD.

The subsidized bus is attracting clients with a more competitive price.

Because the environment ministry, the land ministry and local governments are giving subsidies to the bus maker, the subsidized bus costs 200 million won ($179,000) less than it would without the subsidies.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but the Chinese government is not subsidizing Korean made buses in China. So is the ROK government subsidizing these buses as part of some larger deal perhaps to get China to withdraw some of is economic sanctions caused by the phony THAAD controversy?

Workplace protest, Japanese style:
Bus drivers are striking by continuing to drive but refusing to take fares from passengers. https://t.co/ig11yuqSyj pic.twitter.com/3EYXiENqWY

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) May 3, 2018

Rescue authorities clean up the scene where a bus collided with a passenger vehicle, killing eight and injuring 11, on a road in Yeongam County, South Jeolla Province, on May 1, 2018. (Yonhap)

This would explain why Kim Jong-un made the unusual public appearance of sorrow after the tragic bus accident in North Korea that killed 32 Chinese tourists:

Chinese communist revolutionary Mao Zedong’s only grandson Mao Xinyu was possibly killed in a bus crash in North Korea in April that killed over 30 Chinese, according to a report from French radio.

Xinyu, the son of Mao Zedong’s second son Anqing who died fighting in the Korean War, was possibly one of 32 Chinese tourists who died when a bus fell from a bridge in North Hwanghae Province, Radio France Internationale’s Chinese version reported on April 30, citing a Chinese source.

The report said Xinyu, a Major General in the People’s Liberation Army of China, and most of the other Chinese tourists were the children of Chinese soldiers who fought in the Korean War.

The accident also killed four North Koreans.

The tourists died reportedly on their way back from a cemetery in Hoechang County in South Pyongan Province that was for Chinese soldiers who died during the Korean War. Mao Zedong’s eldest son Anying was buried there, which leads to the supposition Xinyu could have visited the cemetery to pay tribute to his uncle.

If it is true that Xinyu was among the dead, two direct descendants of Mao Zedong have perished on the Korean Peninsula.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the new bus schedule between Yongsan Garrison and Camp Humphreys that began on April 16th: