“KTX, ‘overloading’ every holiday… There are limits to determining the actual number of people”

KORAIL’s own ridership limit of 47 people exceeded… 8,866 cases of illegal riding detected during the Chuseok holiday

Private plane "close to the limit according to the design standards... If left as is, a major accident could result"

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Noh Seon-woong = It was found that there are repeated cases of people exceeding the railway company's own ridership standards on some sections of KTX trains during the holiday season.

Considering the number of undetected unticketed passengers and the weight of holiday baggage, some point out that train load management needs to be inspected more closely to prevent accidents.

According to data submitted by Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) on the 12th by Rep. Jeon Yong-gi of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee of the National Assembly, the number of people on board KTX train No. 30 (Osong - Cheonan-Asan section) from Busan on February 18, the last day of this year's Lunar New Year holiday, was counted at 1,125.

This number exceeds KORAIL's own maximum ridership standard (1,0078) applied when demand is concentrated by 47 people. According to the design of the KTX vehicle, the maximum number of passengers is 1,133.

This phenomenon of exceeding ridership standards continues to occur every holiday season. The number of passengers exceeded 1,078 in 9 of the top 10 sections for the 2025 Chuseok and 2026 Lunar New Year holidays.

During this year's Chuseok holiday, all five sections with the highest congestion exceeded the applicable standards, and on September 24, 1,109 people boarded KTX No. 4021 (Cheonan-Asan-Daejeon section).

Although the railway corporation controls the number of people issuing tickets, some analyzes suggest that there are limits to on-site personnel management due to fraudulent passengers boarding without tickets. The number of cases of illegal riding detected during the four days of this year's Chuseok holiday reached 8,866.

There continues to be criticism about the method of calculating train load. The KTX standing standard is calculated by applying 75kg per passenger based on the spare load within the allowable axle weight, and the weight of baggage carried by the passenger is not measured separately. Currently, there is no system in place to measure the total weight of baggage in a train in real time.

KORAIL's position is that it is securing about 5,400 kg of free load by operating the capacity with 178 people, which is less than the maximum standing number (251) proposed by the production company. However, Rep. Jeon counters that this is a theoretical calculation based on the difference in capacity and is not the result of directly measuring the actual baggage weight.

Rep. Jeon said, "As the manufacturer also said that an increase in load can affect braking power and traction, if a train carrying passengers approaching the limit of the design standard is left running as is, it could lead to a major accident. We must quickly review the necessary measures with public safety as the top priority."