One in Six KTX Services Delayed at Least Five Minutes in Six-Year Review
A parliamentary review of Korea Railroad Corp. data found that 15.8 percent of KTX services since 2021 were delayed by at least five minutes, with passenger boarding and alighting the most frequently recorded cause.
Nearly one in six KTX services operated over the past six years arrived at least five minutes late, according to railway data released during South Korea’s parliamentary audit season, highlighting persistent congestion and reliability challenges on the country’s high-speed rail network.
Data submitted by Korea Railroad Corp., or KORAIL, to Democratic Party lawmaker Cho In-chul showed that 114,228 of 722,252 KTX runs between 2021 and September this year were delayed by five minutes or more. That represents 15.8 percent of all services during the period. Cho sits on the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee.
The annual delay rate rose from 10.9 percent in 2021 to 17.7 percent in 2022 and peaked at 20.9 percent in 2023. It subsequently declined to 17.3 percent in 2024 and 14.2 percent last year. Through September this year, the rate stood at 13.3 percent, showing improvement from the peak but remaining in double digits.
Most recorded delays were relatively short. Services running five to 10 minutes late accounted for 96,261 cases, while 15,677 trains were delayed by 10 to 20 minutes. There were 1,340 delays lasting 20 to 40 minutes and 322 lasting 40 to 60 minutes. Another 628 services were delayed for at least an hour.
Passenger boarding and alighting was the most frequently recorded reason, appearing in 153,036 cases, or 33.7 percent of all cited causes. Knock-on effects from accidents and other miscellaneous factors accounted for 24.7 percent, while train-order adjustments represented 19.9 percent and reduced-speed operation 19.7 percent. Cause totals exceeded the number of delayed trains because more than one reason could be assigned to a single service.
The figures also pointed to station bottlenecks. At Yongsan Station last year, trains stopped for an average of four minutes and 48 seconds, compared with a scheduled three minutes and 24 seconds. About 86.8 percent of trains exceeded their planned dwell time there. The corresponding shares were 77.6 percent at Suncheon Station and 66.7 percent at Gwangju-Songjeong Station.
Across both high-speed and conventional services, KORAIL paid 17.81 billion won in compensation to about 3.32 million passengers for delays between 2021 and August this year. Cho called for structural measures to ease boarding bottlenecks, including ways to shorten the time needed for passengers to enter and leave trains.