[2][3] During the early 2000s, the South Korean government decided to split the national railroad into separate companies for operation and construction.

Amongst other benefits, this change was promoted as permitting open access across the Korean railway system; Korail functioned as the incumbent operator.

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 with the 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.

[10] In December 2016, SR Corporation officially launched SRT (Super Rapid Train) services, initially running between Suseo–Busan on a newly-opened high speed line.

[13] SR Corporation has claimed that its presence has increased competition, driving down ticket prices and raising service quality overall, while also contributing to the repayments of the accumulated debts from the construction of Korea’s high-speed network.