Living in the west side of the city my bus routes always pass by SeoDaegu Express Bus Terminal. I've often wondered what this was and even got off the bus once to look around inside. Most buses orginate from Dongdaegu and is where most people board buses. However, I recently tested this terminal out so now have another option to travel to Seoul.

The first time I transited at SeoDaegu was when I took a bus to Gwangju. The bus left Dongdaegu and then stopped at SeoDaegu to pickup more passengers. However, when I had been checking the bus times on the Kobus site it was showing identical times at SeoDaegu terminal 805 as those at Dongdaegu for the bus to Gwangju that day.

This weekend I decided to give it a try for taking a bus to Seoul, which I've never done as I take KTX or slower Muganghwa trains. Bus prices were 24,100w verses 20,700w on the slow Muganghwa train.

SeoDaegu has two destinations in Seoul, the Express Bus Terminal and DongSeoul Terminal a bit east of the centre. The departure board showed buses leaving about every 15-20 mins to either of these terminals.

When I arrived at 9.20 the first bus they sold me was for 10am and said there were no earlier buses availalble. After a while watching the buses arrrive I noticed they were arriving about 20 mins behind schedule. This means my 10am bus will actually arrive at 10.20 giving me an hour wait.

This is because the departures times shown on the board and ticket are from Dongdaegu bus terminal. It then takes 15-25 mins in traffic to arrive at SeoDaegu. So if you wanted a 10am bus from SeoDaegu you should buy a ticket for 9.40 as that is the time it will leave Dongdaegu and arrive at SeoDaegu by 10am. Its important to check the bus time displayed on the bus when it arrives and not go by the time on the clock.

Also the bus times to Seoul shown on the Kobus site are travel times from Dongdaegu (3hr 50 mins). As it takes 20 mins to drive to SeoDaegu this 20 mins is not counted in the total travel time from SeoDaegu. Thus it only took 3hr 30mins to reach Seoul whereas the Kobus site says its 3hr 50mins from Dongdaegu.

Coming back was also quicker than the 4 hour slow Mugangwha train. It took us 3hr 15mins to reach SeoDaegu and we could have done it quicker had we not stopped for a highway truck stop.

I'm only a 10 min bus ride from SeoDaegu so I'm glad I have this new option rather then always travelling across the city to DongDaegu bus or train stations.

You can check the bus times from SeoDaegu on the Kobus site
http://www.kobus.co.kr/web/eng/02_servi ce/service01.jsp

SeoDaegu is listed as Daegu-805

Also I believe the times shown are origin times from Dongdaegu so it will take 15-25 mins in traffic to reach SeoDaegu. I dont know if that is true for every bus, but this appears to be a pickup terminal only and buses do not seem to originate from here. Seat numbers are assigned so you dont have to worry about the seats running out at DongDaegu before it arrives.

To buy your tickets online ahead of time you can follow this link
http://globaldaegu.blogspot.kr/search/l abel/Express%20bus%20reservation

and more info on SeoDaegu Express Bus Terminal here
http://globaldaegu.blogspot.kr/search/l abel/Seodaegu

However, both ways the next bus was sold out and I had to get tickets for the following bus. If you dont mind waiting you can buy your ticket at the counter or you can purchase it ahead online if you need a specific time.

Now I have an alternative quicker way to get to Seoul only 10 mins by bus from my house

This article was printed on the Daegu Blogsite
http://globaldaegu.blogspot.kr/2012/11/ seodaegu-express-bus-terminal-to-seoul. html