Korea Railroad Corp. Sees 84 Percent Booking Rate for Chuseok Holiday Tickets

Korea Railroad Corp. sold 1.8 million train tickets during seven days of Chuseok reservations that began Sept. 3, recording a booking rate of 84 percent, news reports said Friday.

Chuseok, the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving, runs from Sept. 24-27 this year.

The figure was up 21.3 percentage points from 62.7 percent last year and was also significantly higher than the roughly 60 percent recorded for major holiday periods over the past three years, officials said.

Among major routes, the Gyeongjeon Line recorded the highest booking rate at 94.2 percent, followed by the Gyeongbu Line at 91.3 percent, the Jungang Line at 112.7 percent, the Jeolla Line at 90.6 percent, the Honam Line at 87.9 percent, the Donghae Line at 81.4 percent and the Gangneung Line at 70.9 percent.

KTX tickets were particularly popular, with 1.48 million booked for a rate of 92.7 percent, compared with 321,000 regular train tickets at 58.6 percent.

Payment for Chuseok tickets opens at midnight Saturday. Tickets booked through the general reservation process must be paid for by Tuesday, while advance reservations made on Sept. 3-4 by eligible passengers, including people aged 65 and older, people with disabilities, veterans and pregnant women, must be paid for by Sept. 18.

With train ticket scalping on the rise ahead of the holiday season, Korail has been stepping up its crackdown through measures including mystery shoppers and an online reporting channel.

Korail employees are posing as buyers on online secondhand marketplaces, including Karrot and Bungaejangter, purchasing suspected scalped tickets to identify sellers.

The railway operator is also running a ticket-scalping reporting channel on its website, offering a 50 percent train fare discount coupon to those whose reports lead to confirmed cases of illegal resale.

"Users caught selling scalped tickets will immediately have their memberships terminated. We plan to refer cases to relevant authorities, including the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the National Police Agency, for investigation under a zero-tolerance policy," an official told a local news outlet.