By Byun Duk-kun
Staff Reporter

Hundreds of thousands of people embarked on their homecoming exodus Tuesday morning, two days ahead of Sollal, or Lunar New Year’s Day, desperate to avoid the feared holiday traffic rush on major highways.

More than 147,000 vehicles had escaped Seoul and the sprawling Kyonggi Province as of 1 p.m. while more than 3.8 million cars are expected to join the exodus from the capital area during the Lunar New Year holidays, according to the Korea Highway Corporation (KHC).

``The traffic isn’t too bad yet even when compared to regular weekdays, but it is building up real fast,’’ an official at the highway corporation said. He expected the traffic to be the worst today ahead of the Sollal tomorrow as more than 20 million cars are expected to line up on nation’s major highways.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation earlier predicted the number of people traveling to their hometowns to top more than 39 million this year, up 2.7 percent from last year, while more than 3.8 million cars will leave the Seoul area during the holiday, making it a 10-hour drive from Seoul to Pusan though it usually takes only about 4 hours and 30 minutes.

The ministry injected an additional 482 trains during the holidays, with 60 temporary trains allocated for yesterday, enlarging their transport capacity by 13 percent, while accommodating an additional 268 express buses to increase their number of daily services by 14 percent to 7,980 runs a day.

Still, public transportation got an early start yesterday with all of the tickets for the 60 temporary trains having sold out by early morning, according to the Korean National Railroad (KORAIL).

``We still have some tickets left for the holidays but all the tickets heading down south before the Lunar New Year’s day and heading back to Seoul after the holidays are already sold out,’’ a KORAIL official said.

The ministry had also committed an additional 268 express buses for the holiday to increase their number of daily services by 14 percent to 7,980 runs a day. However, more than 85 percent of tickets for express buses, including those additional ones allocated for the holidays, were also sold before noon.

Ministry officials expected that return traffic would start building up on Friday, one day after Sollal. ``The return traffic won’t be as bad as the one heading down (to hometowns in South) before the holiday because the holidays continue into the weekend. But there will certainly be return traffic and it will reach its peak on Friday as those going to work on Saturday will rush back to Seoul,’’ a ministry official said.

Also in line with more use of public transportation during holidays, the ministry has decided to enforce exclusive bus lanes on major highways throughout the entire holiday.

Travelers are also advised to check for traffic information at the ministry’s Web site, www.moct.go.kr, or by calling the traffic information hotline at 1333, before heading for their hometowns.

benjamine@koreatimes.co.kr