Busan BRT now complete after final section opens

The final section of the Busan BRT (bus rapid transit) opened on December 28, bringing an eight-year project that has gradually made its way across the city to a close.

Construction on Busan’s BRT project first began in March 2016 with a section in the east of the city and was completed in December the same year. Since then, the city has continued to open up new sections in stages.

Busan now has 30.3km of BRT roads traveling through the center of main roads, stretching from the west, through Busan Station, Seomyeon, and over to Haeundae. If you ever traveled in Busan on a bus prior to the BRT, you may know that buses could be quite slow, as they would often get delayed due to congested roads.

Click image to view larger version. Source: Busan Metropolitan City

The city says it expects buses using the system to travel 5-19% faster than they did on standard roads, and that services will be 15-25% more on time. This means Busan commuters should be able to rely on buses more than they previously could, without having to worry about being late.

The remaining 5.4km section of the BRT which opened earlier this week links up Jurye (주례) with Seomyeon (서면). The new lanes resulted in the closure of 29 roadside bus stops, and over 100 staff from relevant agencies made sure things ran smoothly on the first day.

While the initial BRT plan is now up and running, there are still a couple of other routes in the pipeline. One is from Daeti to Jinhae, and another from Munhyeon to Suyeong.