[8][9] Passenger and freight services are primarily provided by the Korea Railroad Corporation, branded as Korail, a state-owned enterprise under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, although some rail lines and services, including high-speed intercity rails and metropolitan rapid transit, are operated by private companies.

Construction on the Chemulpo line begun on March 22, 1897, under the management of American businessmen Henry Collbran and Harry Bostwick on behalf of James Morse, but after Morse was unable to secure the necessary funding, he sold the concession to a Japanese company headed by Shibusawa Eiichi;[12] the sale went into effect on December 31, 1898.

The first tram line was opened on May 20, 1899 between Seodaemun and Dongdaemun (today two districts of Seoul),[13] before the Seoul-Chemulpo railway, becoming the first railroad on the Korean Peninsula.

[15] On May 8, 1902, construction started on this line under the name Northwestern Railway, from Seoul to Uiju through Kaesong and Pyongyang, with completion in 1905 under the supervision of the Japanese military.

Construction lasted from August 21, 1901 to December 27, 1904, with operations beginning on January 1, 1905; in the early years, the rail trip between Seoul and Busan took almost 14 hours.

[37] Railroads in the 1980s were useful primarily in the transportation of freight, and they were important for passenger traffic around Seoul and in the heavily traveled corridor linking the capital with the southern port of Busan.

Announced in 1965, the first line of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, the first rapid transit system in South Korea, opened in 1974.

[39][40][41] The government decided to invest in Korea's first high-speed rail to ease traffic congestion between Seoul and Busan.

In 1991, Korea sent a request for proposals to Japan, France and Germany, all countries with successful high-speed railways with the Shinkansen, TGV and ICE, respectively.

The French also agreed that after building the first few train sets in France, the rest would be built in Korea with involvement from Korean companies.

The initial completion goal was 1998; lack of experience, frequent redesign, difficulties in purchasing land, and the IMF crisis delayed the entire project.

Between 1968–1994, only 12 rail projects with a total combined cost of US$660 million received private investment, but the operation and management of all remained in government hands.

Initially, the transportation ministry aimed to regain full control over the Korean National Railroad, which operated as an independent government agency, and re-establish it as a government-owned corporation.

As a result, after building Gyeongbu HSR, the Korean National Railroad was split into Korail (established in January 2004) and Korea Rail Network Authority (established in January 2005 and renamed to Korea National Railway in September 2020[1]), the former managing operation and the latter maintaining tracks.

KR was constituted with old KNR infrastructure assets, and several debts due to construction of railway lines were transferred.

In 2012, the then-Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs called for bids to operate high-speed trains for 15 years on the Seoul–Busan and Seoul–Mokpo lines.

The ministry's goal was to end the state-owned Korail's monopoly and create competition for the state-run KTX trains, hoping to increase the quality of service and decrease fares.

[54] SR Corporation, founded in 2014, won the concession to operate the trains; though Korail owns 41 percent of its shares, a teachers' pension fund and two Korean banks own a combined 59 percent of shares, with SR thus operating independently from the government and Korail.

[65] A potential threat to the groundbreaking ceremony emerged after it was revealed that the North Korean railway was in poor condition.

[65] On December 21, 2018, however, the United States agreed to no longer obstruct plans by both Koreas to hold a groundbreaking ceremony.

[66] The same day, a four-day inter-Korean road survey began when ten working-level South Korean surveyors entered North Korea to work with ten North Korean surveyors on a three-day survey of a 100-kilometer (62 mi) long section on the eastern Donghae Line.

[68] However, it was acknowledged that these reconnected North Korean railroads needed more inspection and construction in order to be active, due to deterioration.

Frequent service is provided on most routes, with trains every 15–60 minutes connecting Seoul to all major South Korean cities.

A high-speed railroad by the name of the Korea Train Express (KTX) is in service between Seoul, Busan, Yeosu, Jinju, Donghae, Gangneung and Mokpo.

[83] The first 8000 trains were assembled by the 50 C/S Group – consisting of ACEC, AEG-Telefunken, Alsthom, Brown Boveri, MTE, and Siemens – in Belgium and arrived in Korea on March 7, 1972.

[87] In December 2007, regular freight service started on the Gyeongui line, from South Korea into the Kaesong Industrial Park in the north.

This absence of interest in the service has been explained by the customers' (companies operating in Kaesong) preference for road transport.

A Korean Strait undersea tunnel has been proposed,[91] but the project has not progressed beyond initial planning as studies in the early 2010s showed the development not to be economical.