South Korea Travel Forum

Me and my boyfriend are visiting South Korea in September and are planning on buying the Korea rail pass. However, there is something posted on the official site that I don't quite understand:

[..]
3. Seat appointment: appointed at any station in the whole country, without separate fare <b>(in case of using KTX, Saemaeul luxurious room or Mugungwha bedroom, 50% of exising fare is charged separately)</b>
<a href="http://info.korail.com/2007/eng/etr/etr02000/w_etr02100.jsp" target="_blank">Source</a>

I was under the impression that the fare that you pay for the ticket is the only thing you pay. Does the text above mean that if we travel by KTX with the rail pass, we still have to pay 50% of the "existing fare" each time we do so?

I'd be really grateful if someone who's already used this service could explain this to me :)

Thank you.

I have no personal knowledge of the Korean railroad, but based on what I know about North American and European railroads, your understanding would be correct.

You would obviously pay a surcharge for special rooms or bedrooms, but it also looks to me that the KTX is a special (high speed) service.

See http://info.korail.com/2007/eng/est/est01000/w_est01100.jsp
The default view shows the KTX line from Daejeon to Busan (the "Gyeongbu Line"). Start clicking on the other lines to see where they run. Note that "KTX" lines appear to be different than the "National Lines"; I don't know if they ever run different types of trains on the same tracks. You can read more about the KTX lines (if you haven't already) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KTX

If I am right about this, this is a very similar situation to railroads in Europe, where you can't use Eurail and Interail passes on the 'premium' trains (i.e., the higher speed ones, similar to the KTX) without paying a surcharge. In Italy, for example, the surcharges range from 5 to 25 euro per trip (this has the effect of making rail passes usually a money-losing proposition in Italy).

Bill

I had to go to the Korean site, but what it means is, if you use the pass for the KTX or for first class seating on Saemauel train or Mugungwha trains, you will pay a surcharge equal to 50% of the regular fare for that days travel to the location you intend to go to. For example, if the fare from Seoul to Busan using first class seating is 20,000 won one way, it will cost you an additional 10,000 won ($10 US) for a first class seat. If you take a regular seat, it will cost you nothing extra. There are no "regular" seats on the KTX so you will pay the surcharge anyway. Honestly, the KTX really wasn't designed for use by the pass system, since the pass system was designed as a cheap way for foreigners to see the country. KTX only makes a few stops due to it's speed so you don't get to see too much. In fact, it only shaves an hour off of travel to Busan from using the Saemauel. The KTX is for people in a hurry; not sightseers.

I never got to ride the KTX as it was still in testing when I left Korea in 2004. However, I rode the other trains a lot. Trust me, you really don't need a first class seat and the other trains are really the best way to see the country as they make more stops. I hope this helps.

Thank you both very much for your answers. I wanted to make sure I understood that correctly since the korean-english translations sometimes tend to be a little unclear (and unfortunately my korean is not really that advanced yet). I guess I have some calculating to do :)