A South Korean lawmaker said Friday that a flagship Han River passenger boat service run by Seoul’s city government has failed to meet its goals and that Mayor Oh Se-hoon should admit it rather than put more public money into it.
Yong Hye-in made the remarks in a post on X after questioning city officials at a parliamentary audit of the Seoul government.
Yong claimed that an economic feasibility analysis of the Han River Bus project put its benefit-cost ratio at 0.17. “It was a project that never should have started,” she wrote. She said Oh had not accepted the state audit agency’s findings. The basis for the 0.17 figure could not be independently confirmed.
The Board of Audit and Inspection said in March that the city left out about 50 billion won in ship purchase costs when analyzing the project’s economics, violating rules for calculating total project costs. The board’s final action was a notice of caution, and the city said it would accept the audit results and carry out follow-up measures. The city has said it excluded the vessel costs because there was no precedent for a privately led inland waterway transit project and it applied railway and airport guidelines.
Yong said the service averages 2,473 passengers a day, 37% fewer than the city projected, and that half of them ride on weekends. She said each boat costs 7.1 billion won but carries fewer passengers than half a city bus.
She also said that Oh told the same audit a year ago that the service would not run at a loss, but that actual operating revenue was about half of what he projected. She put the shortfall the city would have to cover with taxpayer money at 13.6 billion won through 2027. There was no immediate response from the city to her claims.
Yong also criticized the city’s renewable energy record, saying renewables account for 0.6% of Seoul’s energy use, the lowest in the country, even though the capital draws 88% of its electricity from other regions. She said the city’s new energy plan cut its solar target to 3 gigawatts from 5 gigawatts.
In questioning the Seoul police chief, Yong said restrictions on rallies have risen by nearly 20% since the president called for tougher action against hate rallies. She said the chief agreed to review the standards for restricting protests.
