Light Rail Subsidies Inflated... Suwon City's Burden Becomes 'Snowball'

Claims have emerged that Suwon City must bear 349.2 billion won out of the anticipated 1.1123 trillion won in project costs for the construction of the Suwon Light Rail Saeryu~Sungdae Station section.

Councilmen Kang Jang-bong (Urban Construction Committee) and Kim Myung-wook of the Suwon City Council plan to raise these claims and request the city to reestablish basic plans for the Suwon Light Rail project during the city council question session at the 3rd plenary meeting of the 268th regular session of the Suwon City Council on the 11th.

● "Gyeonggi Province's Light Rail Support is 6.7 Billion Won, Not 60 Billion Won"

Councilman Kang Jang-bong asserted that for Line 1 (Saeryu~Sungdae Station), presented as the most cost-effective option, with a total project cost estimated at 1.1123 trillion won, the conclusion is reached that the city must bear 349.2 billion won, including 126.8 billion won in municipal funds and 222.4 billion won in city's shared costs.

Moreover, while the city announced at the Suwon Light Rail public hearing last November that Gyeonggi Province's support would be approximately 60 billion won, Councilman Kang explained that it was confirmed to be only 6.7 billion won in reality.

Therefore, the Gwanggyo Development District for Line 1 has already imposed burden-sharing costs for the Bundang-Sinbundang Line, and without large-scale development districts with over 20,000 units, securing funding for the burden-sharing costs (222.4 billion won) is difficult, according to Councilman Kang's argument.

During the city council question on the 11th, he stated, "The city has not transparently disclosed the light rail financing methods," and plans to question Mayor Kim Yong-seo about why the Suwon Light Rail project was allocated 4.6187 trillion won in the 2008 medium-term local finance plan but was completely omitted from the 2009-2013 medium-term local finance plan.

Along with this, Councilman Kang Jang-bong plans to demand measures, arguing that the city has not presented a plan to alleviate downtown congestion after the light rail introduction, lacks environmental measures against noise and dust from rubber-tyred vehicle adoption, and that construction costs are ad hoc in scale.

On this day, Councilman Kang is known to plan to request Mayor Kim to reestablish the light rail basic plan from scratch and rehold the public hearing, while requesting a plan that includes Line 1 routing through the Homaesil District and Suwon Industrial Complex in a circular route, as well as establishing measures to expand light rail usage among car drivers.

● "Concerns Over Increased Debt, Environmental Issues, and Minimal Traffic Dispersion"

Councilman Kim Myung-wook (Economic and Environmental Committee) pointed out that over the past six years, Suwon City has spent approximately 1 trillion won on urban three-dimensional projects such as the Uman Elevated Highway, and that the city's current debt is approximately 420 billion won, with annual repayments of principal and interest exceeding 50 billion won.

Additionally, Councilman Kim argued, "Due to the light rail, which will be mostly constructed at elevated levels, complaints are expected regarding noise, landscape damage, and property rights infringement, and the traffic dispersion effect for private car drivers, which is the actual cause of traffic congestion, is not significant."

As a countermeasure, Councilman Kim Myung-wook suggested first establishing a bus-centered public transportation system, proposing route adjustments, bus transfer system implementation, center lane system, and semi-public operation of bus services.

Moreover, with 10% of light rail construction costs, he projects that bicycles can be strategically fostered as a transportation mode in line with the global trend of low-carbon green growth to share traffic, and plans to request that the city complete projects already underway rather than launch new large-scale policy projects.