Does korail pass include ktx now that SRT trains are booked as KTX?

Korail's 18 September release lists what moved across to Suseo departures: 5% mileage on the ticket price, a 30% discount on a connecting general train, free-seating carriages, priority seats for older and pregnant passengers, and online booking of wheelchair boarding help. Standing tickets are written as a plan rather than as running. The KORAIL PASS is on none of those lists, and none of the four Korean documents behind this page mentions it. So book Suseo departures as ordinary KTX tickets and do not assume a pass covers them until Korail prints that.

Is there a korail app in english, or do I still need KorailTalk?

There is, and it is not called KorailTalk any more. SR's own front page says that from 3 August 2026 the SRT app and 코레일톡 have run as a single app called 코레일+ (Korail+), and that trains on the former SRT routes are booked through it as KTX. If you are searching the store for KorailTalk, Korail+ is the one. Korail says the booking flow is now four steps instead of seven, with fingerprint, face or PIN login.

Where to book ktx tickets online if you have no Korean phone number?

Use Korail+ or Korail's English site, and expect the account, not the ticket, to be the obstacle. SR's notice says converting an old SR account to the integrated membership goes through 본인인증, Korean identity verification, and neither operator has published what satisfies that for a visitor with a foreign number. Korail's release does not address it either. SR's notice names a station counter alongside the app and the website as a booking route from 1 September, so budget time for the sign-up and keep the counter as the fallback.

SRT train korea vs ktx: is that still a choice I have to make?

No. The transport ministry says Korail and SR completed their institutional merger and that from 1 September 2026 KTX and SRT run as KTX. The trains from Suseo are the same trains; they are sold, searched and branded as KTX now. Advice telling you to check SRT separately when KTX shows no seats was written before that date and has not been updated.

KTX vs srt price after the merger: did fares actually go down?

Yes, on the KTX side. The ministry says KTX fares were brought down to the level SRT was already charging, an average cut of 10%, and that the Suseo routes now earn 5% of the ticket price back as mileage. Korail repeats the 10% figure in its own 18 September release. Neither document prints a station to station example, so read it as a levelling rather than a new discount: if you were already taking SRT out of Suseo, your fare is the one that did not move.

Seoul to busan train which station do I leave from now?

Whichever one you booked. Korail now sells every high-speed train in one search regardless of whether it leaves Seoul, Yongsan or Suseo, so the station is an outcome of the seat you pick rather than a decision you make first. That is the practical change: you no longer have to run two searches on two sites to find out that the cheap seat was on the other operator.

Getting around

KTX booking is one app now, and the old SRT site is the trap

By Jayden Hwang · Written 22 September 2026

Verified 22 SEPT 2026

The short version

Korail and SR merged. From 1 September 2026 the trains that were SRT are sold, searched and branded as KTX, so any advice telling you to search KTX and SRT separately is out of date.
One app does all of it. The SRT app and 코레일톡 became 코레일+ (Korail+) on 3 August 2026, and it searches every high-speed train from Seoul, Yongsan and Suseo in one go.
KTX fares came down to the old SRT level, an average cut of 10%, and Suseo departures now earn 5% mileage and a 30% discount on a connecting general train.
The old SR site is not switched off. Its own notice says the app and website ran to 31 August 2026 and then stay open for a period taking non-member single tickets only, so booking there gets you a seat without the account the merger just extended.
The account is the hard part, not the ticket. SR says membership conversion runs through Korean identity verification, and neither operator has said what a foreign phone number does to it.

Every English guide to Korean high-speed rail teaches the same fork. KTX belongs to Korail, SRT belongs to a separate company called SR, they leave from different Seoul stations, and you want both apps because the seats come out of different pools. That was good advice for nine years.

It stopped being true on 1 September 2026. The transport ministry announced on 31 August that the merger of Korail and SR was complete and that from the first of September KTX and SRT would run as KTX. Korail followed on 18 September with a second document listing what actually changed for a passenger.

SR wrote something down too, on 21 August, and its sentence is the one that costs money. The SRT app and the SR website ran only until 31 August 2026. They did not then go dark: the same notice says they stay open for a period, taking non-member single tickets only. A booking site that still sells you a seat while quietly booking you as a non-member is worse than a site that is switched off, because the failure is invisible until you look for the mileage that never arrived.

What follows is that notice, Korail’s 18 September list of what actually reached the Suseo trains, and the ministry’s numbers behind both.

What changed on 1 September 2026

Until 31 August 2026	From 1 September 2026
Two operators: Korail runs KTX, SR runs SRT	One operator. Trains from Suseo are sold as KTX
Two apps and two booking sites	One app, 코레일+ (Korail+), since 3 August
Mileage on KTX tickets only	5% of the ticket price as mileage on Suseo routes too
Transfer discount on KTX only	30% off a connecting general train from Suseo as well
Search by station, then search again	One search covers Seoul, Yongsan and Suseo

Korail’s own summary of the effect: about 116,000 extra high-speed seats a week, and KTX fares cut by an average of 10%. The ministry counts the same increase a day at a time, roughly 15,000 more seats on a weekday and up to about 17,000 at a weekend, with the Suseo axis expanding by about 30%. Those are two descriptions of one increase rather than two increases, so do not add them.

The fare sentence is worth reading closely, because the ministry words it more carefully than the headlines did. KTX fares were brought down to the level SRT was already charging. So the cut is a levelling, and the people it reaches are the ones who were on KTX. If you were already taking SRT out of Suseo, your fare is the one that did not move.

Delay compensation was strengthened in the same release, for every high-speed train rather than only the Suseo ones, and it is the figure worth writing down before a tight connection: Korail says that when a train is 120 minutes late through the company’s own fault, it refunds 100% of the fare.

How to book KTX tickets online now: one app, one search

The booking route is Korail+ or Korail’s site, and there is no second place to check. Korail says the app now searches and sells every high-speed train in the country in a single query, whatever the departure station, and that the reservation flow was cut from seven steps to four with fingerprint, face and PIN login added. Changes and refunds got easier in the same release: a ticket can be moved to any date within seven days either side without a penalty, a refund inside ten minutes of payment is free, and a seat can be changed from inside the app once you have boarded.

If you have been sent to an English booking agent that adds a service fee, this is the moment to stop paying it. The reason those agents existed was that Korail and SR were separate systems with separate logins. One of those reasons is gone.

Is there a korail app in english, and what happened to KorailTalk

The app is called 코레일+, written Korail+ in the store. SR’s front page states the date plainly: from 3 August 2026 the SRT app and 코레일톡 have operated as one app, and from trains running on 1 September the old SRT routes are booked through it as KTX. Guides that tell you to download KorailTalk are not wrong about where to go, only about what it is called, and guides that tell you to download the SRT app as well are sending you to a dead end.

The old SRT site still sells tickets, and that is the trap

On 22 September 2026 the SR reservation site at etk.srail.kr loads normally and draws a full departure and arrival form with every station in the list. Its own notice board explains what that form is now. The notice posted on 21 August says the SRT app and the SR website were to operate only until 31 August 2026, and that from 1 September the Suseo trains are booked in Korail+, on Korail’s website or at a station counter. Then it adds the qualifier, in smaller type than the rest: for a period, the app and site can still take bookings, and only for non-member single tickets.

That qualifier is the warning. Booking there works, and it books you as a non-member. Korail describes the new mileage on Suseo departures as a 철도회원 benefit, a rail membership one, so a non-member ticket is a seat with no mileage, no booking history in the app you will be using next time, and no account to change it from. Whether the connecting-train discount follows the account or the ticket is not stated anywhere we read. Assume the account.

The same notice lists what stopped outright on the SR side: season and multi-ride tickets, new SR sign-ups, travel products and partner services. SR member coupons unused as of 25 August moved to the integrated Korail+ account. And it names the routes that do work, which is useful if an app refuses your foreign card: Korail+, Korail’s website, a station counter, or an outside ticketing channel such as Naver or Kakao T.

Seoul to Busan: the station is now an outcome, not a decision

The practical difference for a visitor is smaller than the corporate news and more useful. Before, choosing Seoul Station or Suseo meant choosing a company, a site and a login, and the cheap seat was often on the one you were not looking at. Now the search returns both and the station is simply where the seat you picked happens to leave from.

That matters most at the two ends of a trip. If you are coming in from the airport, our note on getting from Incheon to Seoul still applies unchanged, and the rail pass arithmetic in the K-Pass and Modu Card page is about local transit rather than high-speed rail, so the merger does not disturb it. If your foreign card has been refused at a Korean payment gateway before, the pattern in our page on topping up with a foreign card is the same one you will meet at the ticket counter.

What we have not confirmed

Three things, and they are the three a visitor is most likely to need.

Whether a foreign phone number passes the account check. SR’s notice says membership conversion runs through 본인인증, Korean identity verification, after a third-party data consent step. Neither SR nor Korail publishes what counts as identity for someone holding a foreign number. Korail’s release talks about login convenience once you have an account and says nothing about getting one. So assume the sign-up is the slow part, do it before the day you travel, and keep a station counter as the fallback.

Whether the KORAIL PASS now covers Suseo departures. Korail’s Suseo section lists mileage, transfer discounts, self-service transfers, free-seating carriages, priority seats and wheelchair boarding help, and promises standing tickets. The pass is absent from all of it, and so is the word itself: none of the four Korean documents contains 코레일패스 anywhere. The English pass pages would settle it, and they cannot be read: korail.com/global/eng/pass returns a few hundred characters of script and no text, and the old letskorail.com pass page is a 404. Until Korail prints it somewhere legible, treat a pass as covering what it covered in August.

How long the SR site keeps taking those non-member bookings. The notice says 일정기간, for a period, and gives no end date. We read the notice rather than attempting a booking, so what the form does on any given day is not something this page can promise. Book in Korail+ and the question does not arise.

If you hit any of these in practice and the answer turns out to be knowable, tell us and we will print the correction with your finding and the date.

Where these figures come from

Four Korean documents: a transport ministry policy briefing, Korail’s 18 September press release, SR’s booking front page and SR’s wind-down notice of 21 August. The merger itself was widely reported in English, so if a number here disagrees with something you read elsewhere, the Korean original is the one to check, and all four are linked below. Every figure on this page was read off them on 22 September 2026 rather than converted or restated from an English summary, which is also why the weekly and daily seat counts are presented as one increase: the two documents describe the same trains.

Questions people actually ask

Does korail pass include ktx now that SRT trains are booked as KTX?: Korail's 18 September release lists what moved across to Suseo departures: 5% mileage on the ticket price, a 30% discount on a connecting general train, free-seating carriages, priority seats for older and pregnant passengers, and online booking of wheelchair boarding help. Standing tickets are written as a plan rather than as running. The KORAIL PASS is on none of those lists, and none of the four Korean documents behind this page mentions it. So book Suseo departures as ordinary KTX tickets and do not assume a pass covers them until Korail prints that.
Is there a korail app in english, or do I still need KorailTalk?: There is, and it is not called KorailTalk any more. SR's own front page says that from 3 August 2026 the SRT app and 코레일톡 have run as a single app called 코레일+ (Korail+), and that trains on the former SRT routes are booked through it as KTX. If you are searching the store for KorailTalk, Korail+ is the one. Korail says the booking flow is now four steps instead of seven, with fingerprint, face or PIN login.
Where to book ktx tickets online if you have no Korean phone number?: Use Korail+ or Korail's English site, and expect the account, not the ticket, to be the obstacle. SR's notice says converting an old SR account to the integrated membership goes through 본인인증, Korean identity verification, and neither operator has published what satisfies that for a visitor with a foreign number. Korail's release does not address it either. SR's notice names a station counter alongside the app and the website as a booking route from 1 September, so budget time for the sign-up and keep the counter as the fallback.
SRT train korea vs ktx: is that still a choice I have to make?: No. The transport ministry says Korail and SR completed their institutional merger and that from 1 September 2026 KTX and SRT run as KTX. The trains from Suseo are the same trains; they are sold, searched and branded as KTX now. Advice telling you to check SRT separately when KTX shows no seats was written before that date and has not been updated.
KTX vs srt price after the merger: did fares actually go down?: Yes, on the KTX side. The ministry says KTX fares were brought down to the level SRT was already charging, an average cut of 10%, and that the Suseo routes now earn 5% of the ticket price back as mileage. Korail repeats the 10% figure in its own 18 September release. Neither document prints a station to station example, so read it as a levelling rather than a new discount: if you were already taking SRT out of Suseo, your fare is the one that did not move.
Seoul to busan train which station do I leave from now?: Whichever one you booked. Korail now sells every high-speed train in one search regardless of whether it leaves Seoul, Yongsan or Suseo, so the station is an outcome of the seat you pick rather than a decision you make first. That is the practical change: you no longer have to run two searches on two sites to find out that the cheap seat was on the other operator.

Where these numbers came from

Read on 22 September 2026. 4of4are the operator's own Korean pages.