The Thames and the Han River

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The Thames and the Han River

Published: 24 Oct. 2025, 00:05

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Baek Woo-jin

The author is an economic columnist and the CEO of Geuljaengi Inc.

“One in five Londoners can commute by river. Would you enjoy the wide, fast and breezy ride on a river bus to work?”

That’s how Thames Clippers, a company operating boats along the Thames River, promotes its service on its website. It highlights that 1.6 million Londoners live within a 15-minute bike ride of a river pier and provides data to back the claim.

A Hangang Bus operates near Yeongdong Bridge in Seoul on July 1, the first day of its trial service. [YONHAP]

The Han River in Seoul, however, is different. Along the Thames, residential and commercial zones are tightly clustered, while the Han’s wide riverbanks remain largely unused. The difference stems from climate. Rainfall feeding the Thames is steady throughout the year, but most of the Han’s water comes from Korea’s summer monsoon season. The riverbanks submerge deeply during heavy rains, making it impossible to build apartments or office buildings close to the water. As a result, far fewer people live within a 15-minute cycling distance from Han River piers. With fewer potential passengers, that’s the first limitation of Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon’s plan to model a “Han River bus” after London’s river bus system.

The second limitation lies in connectivity. Most Thames River bus piers are within a five-minute walk of a Tube or bus stop, but the Han River’s geography prevents that. Few subway stations or bus stops are near the riverbanks.

A third constraint is speed. Seoul’s river buses are much slower than their London counterparts.

Even if the city manages to overcome all these disadvantages, the Han River bus is unlikely to make a meaningful contribution to public transport. The upper limit of its potential is the current Thames service, which accounts for less than 0.2 percent of London’s overall transport share.

That leaves tourism as its only viable role. Yet private tour boats already operate along the Han River. It’s unclear why the city government would launch another service to compete with existing operators.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.