Foreign railway passengers in Korea reach nearly 3 million in first half year

The number of foreigners using Korea's railway services reached nearly 3 million in the first half of this year, nearly doubling from two years earlier, local railway operators said Sunday.

The platform of Seoul Station in central Seoul [Yonhap

The number of foreigners using Korea's railway services reached nearly 3 million in the first half of this year, nearly doubling from two years earlier, local railway operators said Sunday.

From January to June, a total of 85.09 million passengers used the railway services, with foreigners accounting for 2.84 million, or 3.3 percent, according to SR, the operator of the SRT high-speed train service, and Korea Railroad Corp. (Korail), the operator of KTX high-speed trains and regular trains.

The first-half figure for foreign passengers rose 13 percent from 2.5 million during the same period in 2024 and surged 99 percent from 1.43 million in the first half of 2023.

Since July last year, Korail has operated a priority ticket counter for foreign customers at Seoul Station and introduced an AI-based voice recognition translation program, offering services in 13 languages.

In November, Korail revamped its multilingual website to let foreign passengers choose seats, arrange luggage delivery and book rental car services more easily without language barriers.

In May, SRT also launched multilingual services on its mobile app, allowing ticket reservations and timetable searches in English, Chinese and Japanese to better serve foreign passengers.

If the current growth trend continues in the second half, the total number of foreign railway passengers is expected to surpass 6 million this year, up from 5.61 million in 2024 and 3.49 million in 2023.

Yonhap