The Stars and Stripes has reported that bus and train fares for trips throughout South Korea will increase later this month by up to 12 percent, according to the Ministry of Construction and Transportation.

Fares for express buses will go up 7.3 percent and rides between adjacent cities will go up 10.6 percent. Rates for the KTX bullet trains will increase by 3 percent and fares for regular trains will go up 12 percent, according to the ministry.

This most likely has to do with the rising gas prices around the world. I wonder if the opposite will happen when gas prices go back down. Will they lower the fare?

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Even if the price of gas comes down, there will be justification to keep bus fares up, like we need it to invest in bus maintenance etc... Anyone who was in the ROK when the IMF crisis hit remembers how prices went up and didn't come down. The price of a cold OB down town comes to mind. Even in the bars with sofa stamps, whose owners pay no tax on the beer they sell, they raised prices a lot for one bottle of OB and never lowered them when the won began to appreciate from its IMF low. People in business never miss a chance to increase profit and keep it there.

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Wht gets me is the KTX is electric.

Like last year before and after the hurricane season when oil spiked, natural gas started spiking too, though there is no real correlation between natural gas and oil, other than energy companies can get away with these things. When one commodity in any sector starts to rise, the others can use sector brotherhood to pile onto the profit party. What source generates most of the ROK's electricity?

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