K-Pass Offers Larger Discounts For Front Tofu Public Transportation

Illustration of Seoul Metro. (Wikimedia Commons/KennethHan)

JAKARTA - The South Korean government will launch a new feature for K-Pass, a public transport card with cashback, which offers a larger discount on bus and subway travel across Korea, starting next year.

First introduced in May last year, K-Pass is a public transport card offering monthly fare cuts ranging from 20 to 53 percent, if using a bus or subway at least 15 times a month.

According to South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport last month said K-Pass would only introduce a fixed cost scheme to cut the price of any public transport trip, quoted from The Korea Times Oct. 1.

By buying a new K-Pass for 62,000 won per month, users can enjoy free public bus and subway trips until the accumulated fare reaches 200,000 won, with a refund of 138,000 won the following month.

Meanwhile, transportation costs that exceed the travel distance limit are not borne by this card.

For teenagers, the elderly, parents with three children or more, and those who live in financial poverty, ticket prices are discounted to 55,000 won.

The latest K-Pass will also offer higher-price options that include GTX, a high-speed subway network for the nation's capital region, and buses connecting cities and regional areas.

With the travel distance limit, the regular price for high-end tickets is 100,000 won, while the discount price for the same group is 90,000 won.

The government stated that the latest K-Pass gave a refund rate of 30 percent for elderly users, higher than the previous version of 20 percent.

This latest ticket will offer the same rate of refunds as the current version for regular users by 20 percent, parents with three children or more than 50 percent, and those from low-income households by 53 percent.

To introduce this new benefit, the Ministry of Transportation allocated 527 billion won for next year's K-Pass program, up from 237 billion won this year. Including the K-Pass budget, the government allocated the highest budget of 62.4 trillion won for the Ministry of Transportation in 2026, up 4.2 trillion won from this year.