Getting around

KTX, and what changed on 1 September

Korea spent a decade running two high-speed railways that competed with each other, left from different stations, and sold tickets through different apps. On 1 September 2026 that ended. The trains now run under one name, KTX, fares came down by about a tenth, and the advice in every English travel guide written before this month is no longer correct. Here is what changed, and how to buy a ticket when the payment page rejects your card.

What changed

Korail, the national railway, and SR, which ran the SRT service out of Suseo in southern Seoul, have been separate companies operating competing high-speed trains on largely the same tracks. Korea's competition regulator cleared their merger, and integrated operation began on 1 September 2026.

Three things changed on that date.

SRT is gone as a brand. Those trains are renamed KTX-Sancheon. If you are looking for SRT, you are looking for something that is now called KTX.
Fares came down about ten per cent, aligned to the cheaper SRT scale. Seoul to Busan went from 59,800 KRW to 54,400 KRW, a cut of 5,400 won. Yongsan to Gwangju-Songjeong fell from 46,800 to 42,000 won.
Booking merged into one app, Korail+, which sells seats on what used to be both networks. The separate SRT app no longer books its own network.

Two things came with the merger that matter more to a visitor than the branding does.

There are more seats. Running the two fleets as one network adds roughly fifteen thousand high-speed seats on a weekday and up to seventeen thousand at the weekend. That does not make a Chuseok weekend easy, but the day-before-you-travel situation is better than the one every older guide describes.

Suseo-line journeys now earn mileage, five per cent of what you paid, which they did not under SR. Worth knowing only if you are making several trips; not worth choosing a station for.

Do not trust a fare quoted in an article written before September 2026. This is the rare case where a stale guide is easy to spot: check the date on it, and if the Seoul-Busan fare it quotes starts with a 5 and a 9, it is describing a system that no longer exists.

Which station, though

The merger renamed the trains. It did not move the tracks, and this is the part that still catches people.

Leaving from	Which station	Where it is
Seoul Station	The original KTX lines	Central Seoul, on subway lines 1 and 4
Yongsan	Lines towards Gwangju and Mokpo	Central Seoul, line 1
Suseo	The former SRT lines	Southern Seoul, line 3 and the Suin-Bundang line

Suseo is a forty-minute subway ride from the middle of Seoul. Buying a cheap ticket from Suseo and then discovering where Suseo is has ruined a number of mornings. Check the departure station before you check the price.

And if the town you are going to is not on any of these lines - hundreds are not - the answer is the intercity bus, which has its own two booking sites and its own set of traps.

Buying a ticket when your card keeps failing

This is the real obstacle, and it is not about the trains at all.

Korail's checkout runs through Korean domestic payment gateways. Those gateways expect identity verification tied to a Korean resident number or a Korean phone, and a version of 3-D Secure that many foreign-issued cards do not satisfy. The card that worked all week in convenience stores gets rejected here, with an error message that explains nothing. It is the same wall that stops foreign cards on Korean websites generally.

Four ways through, from most reliable to least.

1. The station ticket office. Counter staff at any KTX station take foreign cards and cash, with a passport for identification, and no Korean phone number is involved. It is the one route that essentially always works. The limit is inventory: on a Friday evening or around Seollal and Chuseok, the seats are gone before you get there.

2. The Korail app or the official English site. korail.com serves English, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Indonesian. Success with a foreign card is better than it used to be and better in the app than in a desktop browser. Two things raise your odds: ask your bank to enable international online transactions and 3-D Secure before you fly, and enter the passenger name exactly as it appears on the card.

3. An authorised international reseller. Platforms that process payment through global merchant accounts sidestep the Korean gateway entirely. You pay a service fee for that.

4. Station ticket machines. English mode, foreign cards accepted, and they stop selling shortly before departure.

The resellers Korail warns about

Korail publishes a notice on its own English site naming sites including RailNinja and RailMonster, and warning that they charge excessive fees and may issue invalid tickets.

The example Korail gives is its own Seoul to Busan standard fare: 43 USD on the official site, 76 USD from an unauthorised seller. That is not a booking fee. It is nearly double.

These sites buy search advertising against the exact phrases a visitor types, so they frequently appear above Korail itself. Before you pay, check that the address is korail.com, or that you are on a booking platform you already had an account with.

The Korail Pass

A rail pass sold only to foreign visitors, giving unlimited travel on Korail trains for a set number of days. Whether it saves money depends entirely on how much you actually ride: two long trips in a week generally does not beat buying two tickets.

The exclusions matter more than the price. The pass does not cover the Seoul metropolitan subway, special tourist trains, or, in the current arrangement, SRT services. How that last exclusion is handled once those trains are renamed KTX-Sancheon is exactly the kind of detail that will be settled in the first weeks of September, so check the terms on Korail's own site rather than a summary written before the merger.

Booking around the holidays

Seats for Seollal and Chuseok travel go on sale on announced dates and sell out in minutes, and for those periods Korail restricts sales to its website and app, with no counter sales. If your trip touches a major holiday, that is the one case where planning a month ahead is not optional. The holiday closures shown on the front page tell you which dates are affected.

What it is actually like

Seoul to Busan is a little under three hours, city centre to city centre, on a train that leaves several times an hour. Standard class is comfortable, there is no security theatre, and you can turn up ten minutes before departure with a ticket already bought.

Large suitcases go in the racks at the ends of the carriages rather than overhead, so a seat near a door is worth having if you are carrying one. Reserved seats are reserved: if someone is in yours, they have made a mistake and showing them your ticket resolves it.

Quick answers: KTX and the fast train

How much is the KTX from Seoul to Busan?

Standard class is 54,400 KRW since the 1 September 2026 fare cut, down from 59,800 KRW. Any guide quoting a fare starting with 59 is describing the old system.

Is SRT the same as KTX now?

Since 1 September 2026, yes. Korail and SR merged, SRT trains were renamed KTX-Sancheon, and booking runs through one app, Korail+. The trains still leave from Suseo in southern Seoul, so check the departure station before the price.

How do I buy a KTX ticket with a foreign credit card?

The station ticket office always works, with a passport. The Korail app and korail.com work better than they used to if your card has 3-D Secure enabled. Authorised international resellers charge a fee; station machines take foreign cards but stop selling shortly before departure.

Which Seoul station does the KTX leave from?

Three. Seoul Station for the original KTX lines, Yongsan for Gwangju and Mokpo, and Suseo for the former SRT lines. Suseo is a forty-minute subway ride from central Seoul.

Figures on this page come from Korail fare change, reported 31 August 2026, Korail official site for foreign visitors, Korail fare change announcement, August 2026. Checked against the published source on the date below.

LAST VERIFIED 13 SEPTEMBER 2026