South Korea Approves KORAIL-SR Merger, Reuniting High-Speed Rail After 12 Years

South Korea's Fair Trade Commission approved on August 2 the merger of state-owned Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL) with SR Corp., reuniting the country's high-speed rail network under a single operator for the first time in 12 years. The watchdog concluded the deal was unlikely to harm competition in the transportation sector.

SR was spun off from KORAIL in 2013 to introduce competition on the KTX high-speed network, running its own SRT services. The two operators began trial cross-operations in February 2026, with KTX trains running from Suseo to Busan and SRT trains serving Seoul Station to Busan, ahead of full integration.

As conditions of approval, KTX fares will be cut by 10% to match SRT pricing for three years, weekend seat capacity will grow by more than 17,000 seats, and daily services will increase by at least 25 trips. The transport ministry has also launched a unified booking app, KORAIL+, with bookings live since 5 August, replacing the separate reservation systems currently used by the two brands.

Full integration is scheduled for completion in September 2026.