Korea Rail Pass
The Korea Rail Pass (Korean: 한국 철도패스; Hangug Cheoldo Paeseu, or Korean: 코리아 레일 패스; Koria Reil Paeseu), also commonly called the KR Pass (Korean: KR패스; KR Paeseu), is a rail pass offered by Korail (Korea Railroad Corporation), the national railway operator of South Korea. The pass is offered exclusively to foreign visitors and is valid for most of the rail lines operated by Korail in the designated period, including KTX, the high-speed railway in South Korea. However, the pass is not valid for subways and tourist trains, even when they are also operated by Korail (e.g. the subway and commuter lines in Seoul operated by Korail).
The pass was first issued in late 1999 by Korean National Railroad (대한민국 철도청), the predecessor of Korail. The pass was initially launched for visitors from the United States, but it was sold also to Japanese visitors in 2000. Therefore, selling points were set up only in these two countries. In 2001, Korean National Railroad started to set up selling points in other countries, with 15 more countries added to the list in late 2001.[1] The pass is available to all foreign visitors now.
At first, the pass is a hand-written ticket, but it was changed to a magnetic ticket when KTX opened, so that the tickets can be used at automatic ticket gates. There were only three-, five-, seven- and ten-day passes initially, and a further one-day pass was added in February 2011.
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