The decision, route by route
Rail times are the published range across the day's services — the fast trains and the all-stations ones differ by up to an hour. Coach times and fares are the operator's own figures for a direct run, and real coach times slip badly in Friday and holiday traffic. Korail publishes no standing fare table, so the only KTX fares quoted here are the two the operator named in its merger announcement.
| Route | KTX | Coach (standard 고속 / deluxe 우등) | Fly | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seoul → Busan | 2 h 15 – 2 h 53, ₩54,400 | 4 h 00, ₩26,700 / ₩39,700, 52 a day | Gimpo–Gimhae ~1 h airborne | The train is often convenient. Compare airport transfers and the fare for your date. |
| Seoul → Gangneung | 1 h 54 from Seoul Station, 1 h 26 from Cheongnyangni | 2 h 50, ₩24,600 우등, 25 a day; 2 h 30 from Dong Seoul | no service | Compare the train with a coach from the terminal closest to you. |
| Seoul → Jeonju | Yongsan to Jeonju on the Jeolla line, around 12 KTX a day | 2 h 40, ₩15,000 / ₩22,000, 100 a day | no service | Either. The coach from Express Bus Terminal is cheap and frequent. |
| Seoul → Gyeongju | to Gyeongju Station, formerly Singyeongju, then a bus or taxi towards the centre | 3 h 30, ₩22,700 / ₩33,600, 15 a day | no service | Allow time and money for the connection from the railway station to central Gyeongju. |
| Seoul → Yeosu | 2 h 40 – 3 h 40 to Yeosu-EXPO, the station in the middle of town | 4 h 15, ₩24,500 / ₩36,400, 22 a day | a Gimpo–Yeosu service exists | Compare the station and terminal locations with your destination in Yeosu. |
| Seoul → Jeju | none — no rail, no bridge, no coach | none | Gimpo–Jeju, 50–55 minutes airborne | Flying is usually quickest. Ferries are another option. |
The Gangneung times are the ones set when the line opened in December 2017, alongside opening fares of ₩27,600 from Seoul Station and ₩26,000 from Cheongnyangni — treat those fares as historic, and check the current timetable and fare for your travel date.
Gyeongju Station, formerly called Singyeongju (신경주역), is outside the central sightseeing area. It is within Gyeongju’s municipal area, in Geoncheon-eup. Check a bus or taxi connection to your accommodation, Bomun or Bulguksa. The train's advantage over the coach shrinks once you add that connection, because the coach terminal is in the town. And Yeosu-EXPO (여수EXPO역) is the opposite case: the line runs to the waterfront, which is why the four-and-a-quarter-hour coach is hard to justify.
Compare the full journey before choosing a flight
Add these stages to the time spent in the air:
- Getting to Gimpo is a subway ride on Line 5 or 9 or the airport railroad, roughly 40 minutes from central Seoul, and Gimpo is the near airport — from Incheon it is far worse.
- Check-in and bag drop close 30 minutes before departure, and Jeju Airport's own guidance states that limit plainly. In practice you are told to be there an hour early, and at holiday peaks ninety minutes.
- The flight is 50 to 55 minutes to Jeju and about the same to Busan.
- Then you are at an airport, not in the city, and need a bus or a taxi at the far end.
Against that, a KTX leaves from Seoul Station or Suseo — both on the subway, both in the city — but you should still allow time to find the platform and board. Seoul to Busan is under three hours seat-to-seat. Depending on your starting point and destination, the train can be as fast as flying once airport travel and check-in are included.
Jeju has no rail or road connection to the mainland. Jeju is an island with no fixed link, so every visitor arrives by air or by ferry. Gimpo–Jeju is the busiest air route in the world by passenger numbers, with around 210–220 flights a day in each direction across nine airlines, but fares and seat availability still vary, especially around holidays.
1 September 2026 — the date that changes the rail answer
Korail announced on 5 August 2026 that it would operate high-speed rail as a unified system from 1 September 2026. What is committed, in the operator's own words:
- SRT is renamed KTX-Sancheon (KTX-산천) and the two fleets merge. One app, Korail+ (코레일+), searches and sells both Seoul-departure and Suseo-departure tickets together.
- Capacity rises by about 116,000 seats a week — roughly 16,000 more a day. Weekday departures go from 379 to 402, weekend from 431 to 457.
- Fares fall about 10% on average, aligning KTX to the old SRT level. Seoul–Busan goes from ₩59,800 to ₩54,400, and Yongsan–Gwangju-Songjeong from ₩46,800 to ₩42,000.
- Suseo departures gain 5% mileage, a 30% transfer discount on a connecting conventional train, and the fleet-wide discount range.
- 자유석 (unreserved) and 입석 (standing) fares extend onto the former SRT routes, which they did not previously carry.
- Delay compensation is re-tiered: 50% at 60–90 minutes, 75% at 90–120, 100% beyond.
Two things to hold onto. The fare cut is committed for three years, so it has a known horizon around August 2029. Older quoted fares may no longer match the price for your train; use the fare shown when booking.
Booking it with a foreign passport
Korail’s foreign-language booking service is the straightforward starting point for visitors.
Check registration and payment requirements for the channel you use. They may differ between the app, domestic website and international pages.
Use the foreign-language site instead. Korail offers a foreign-language booking service that does not require a Korean member account. Korail's own announcement says the foreign-language site lets you "purchase tickets easily even with an overseas-issued credit card" and provides "an overseas card payment service that the ticket machines do not support" — which means, plainly, that station ticket machines do not take an overseas card and the English website does. If you want to pay with an overseas-issued card, use a supported online booking option or ask at a staffed ticket counter. QR codes linking to it are posted at 50 major stations beside the ticket windows.
Coaches are a different problem. Bus tickets are bought at kobus.co.kr for express services, and there is a real trap in the collection rule: a ticket collected at the counter requires the payment card used to book it. Keep the payment card and reservation details available if you plan to collect the ticket at the counter. Use a home ticket or a mobile ticket and avoid the counter entirely. Website sales close one hour before departure; only the app sells later. And some E-PASS services allow onboard purchase when seats are available. Confirm the service and accepted payment method before relying on this option.
Compare coach classes and fares
Coach seating and amenities differ by class; availability depends on the route:
| Class | Seoul → Busan | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 고속 (standard) | ₩26,700 | Four seats across. The cheap option, and increasingly rare |
| 우등 (deluxe) | ₩39,700 | Three across, wider, reclining. The default |
| 프리미엄 (premium) | ₩51,600 | Three across, deeply reclining, individual screens; running since November 2016 |
| Overnight deluxe / overnight premium (심야우등 / 심야프리미엄) | ₩47,600 / ₩61,900 | The overnight versions, priced at a premium |
A premium coach to Busan therefore costs almost as much as a KTX and takes an hour and twenty minutes longer. Compare a premium coach fare with the available train fares. The coach earns its place at the 고속 and 우등 prices, on routes with no fast rail line, and where the terminal is better placed than the station.
Is a KORAIL PASS worth it?
Some things about it are settled. It is foreigner-only — Korail's own booking system lists 177 nationalities for the pass and Korea is not among them, so a Korean national cannot complete the form. It is now sold only as a flexible pass, in 2, 3, 4 and 5 travel-day versions; the consecutive-day pass has gone from the live product list. And there are only two age tiers, Adult and Child — a guide quoting a youth price is quoting a discontinued product.
Korail shows the won price only inside the purchase flow, so compare the pass price with the individual fares for your itinerary. From 1 September a Seoul–Busan return is ₩108,800. A pass saves money only when its price is lower than the eligible tickets you would otherwise buy. Work it out against your actual itinerary before buying, and remember the pass covers travel days, not journeys — several eligible journeys on one travel day can increase its value.
