Prime Minister Kim Min-seok on Friday apologized for the government's failure to address the chronic overcrowding of Gimpo Goldline, a 23-kilometer light metro line connecting Seoul with the satellite city of Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province.
The longstanding issue, caused by a shortage of subway cars on the line, which opened in 2019 with 23 trains.
It has added six more since then and plans to add another five by the end of the year. But this is unlikely to fully meet demand, as congestion levels often exceed 200 percent of capacity.
"I feel truly sorry for the citizens of Gimpo," Kim said as he inspected the commuter rail service Friday morning. "I apologize for not being able to swiftly handle this situation."
Kim stressed a swift implementation of existing plans to increase train frequency of Gimpo Goldline, add more bus lanes for Gimpo commuters, carry out westward extension of Seoul Metro Line No. 5, launch GTX-B high-speed train services for Gimpo residents, among others.
Particularly, Kim said the Lee administration would swiftly reach a decision on how to deal with the bottleneck in the preliminary feasibility study concerning the Line No. 5 extension, adding the study "should have been exempted."
In addition, Kim proposed additional short-term measures, such as augmenting more shuttle buses for apartment residents in Gimpo, given that the existing plans would take a few more years to implement.
He added that he would discuss the matter with President Lee Jae Myung in the near future to find practical ways to deal with overcrowding.
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