Korail

Korail, officially the Korea Railroad Corporation and branded KORAIL, is the national railway operator of South Korea. It is a government-owned corporation managed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and it has its headquarters in Daejeon. The company runs intercity and regional, commuter and metro, and freight trains across the country, with a service ladder that runs from the KTX high-speed trains on the Gyeongbu and Honam high-speed lines, through the ITX intercity services and the Mugunghwa-ho and Nuriro regional trains, to urban railway services in the Seoul and Busan metropolitan areas that share fares with the local subways. Before 1963 the network was managed by a bureau of the transport ministry; it then became the Korean National Railroad, and on 1 January 2005 that body was split into Korail, which took over operations, and the Korea National Railway, which took over construction and track maintenance. Korail also runs sightseeing trains, offers the Korea Rail Pass to foreign visitors and has subsidiaries for ticketing, retail and tour services. Its finances are a recurring public issue, with losses in nearly every year of a decade and fares frozen since 2011.