Subway Card Sales and Charging Stations Significantly Expanded

Gyeonggi Province will significantly expand transit card sales outlets by selling transportation cards used on Seoul, Incheon, and metropolitan buses at all National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (Nonghyup) branches throughout the province.

Additionally, by the end of June, the province plans to introduce automatic charging devices on all 9,430 city and intercity buses within the province to enable passengers to purchase or charge transit cards directly on buses.

Currently, there are only 2,388 transit card sales locations in Gyeonggi Province, but the province plans to expand this to 12,839 locations, adding 10,451 outlets, by the first half of this year.
To achieve this, the province will have all 856 Nonghyup branches throughout the province handle transit cards by the end of March, and plans to add an additional 1,021 locations by expanding general sales outlets.

In Suwon's case, transit card sales will be installed at 196 locations including the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation headquarters, unit agricultural cooperatives, bus stop kiosks, and supermarkets, with plans to add 50 more locations.

Hwaseong also has already established 19 locations in areas such as Byeongjeom and Bongdam at agricultural cooperatives, bus stops, and supermarkets, while Osan has 11 locations. The province plans to gradually expand to a total of 75 locations—60 in Hwaseong and 15 in Osan—by the end of this year.

Transit cards are priced at 1,500 won for credit card-type models and between 5,000 and 7,000 won for mobile phone accessory types.

The on-bus automatic charging device will allow passengers to pay unpaid fares or automatically charge their transit cards, which are linked to bank accounts. The province plans to complete system development by the end of March and implement the system before the end of June.

A Gyeonggi Province official stated, “Currently, transit card sales outlets in the province are relatively sparse compared to densely populated urban areas such as Seoul and Incheon due to lower population density, less regular bus usage such as commuting, and higher initial investment costs for installing charging stations in agricultural and rural areas.”

The official also noted, “We plan to resolve inconveniences associated with purchasing transit cards by having Nonghyup branches handle transit cards and introducing on-bus automatic charging devices.”