Pyoungtaek car-ferry suffers from the get-go

At last count, only 4 entry-passengers were on board the "Da Long" car-ferry, even though it sports a capacity of 830 passengers.

The "Da Long" during its first 13 days of service suffered from a lack of passengers in its Pyoungtaek and Rongcheng trade.

According to the Da Long Shipping Co., Ltd, it carried a total of 1,851 passengers, with an average of 168 passengers each sailing for its first 11 sailings.

The passengers, however, drastically decreased as time passed by. The "high" average only resulted from its early sailings.

Passenger numbers on board to Rongcheng recorded 289 on October 17, the first day of service, and then briefly increased to 387 on October 20. After that, they decreased to 39 on October 24, and 27 on October 27.

Entering vessels were in the same situation. On first entry, 440 passengers were on board. However, on October 24 there were only 19 passengers and on October 29 only 4 passengers.

Lack of passengers has caused an average of 75 million won in losses every sailing for the shipping company.

The shipping company attributed the decrease in passengers to a decline in peddlers. Under-equipped Social Overhead Capital (SOC) facilities in Pyoungtaek and deficient public information on tourist sites around Pyoungtaek and Rongcheng also came out as major reasons for the passenger decrease.

Suwon Customs strengthened its entry formalities, blocking over laden peddlers from sneaking into the country through Pyoungtaek.

A worker at shipping company said, "Though we expected a lack of passengers, we hardly thought that it would be this severe. We are going to discuss how to improve passenger-ferry traffic with Pyoungtaek City hall and the Kyoung-gi provincial government. But the real problem is passengers avoiding Pyoungtaek because of severe screening."