During the early 2000s, the South Korean government decided to split the national railroad into separate companies for operation and construction. Consequently, the Korean National Railroad was broken up into
Korail (established in January 2004) and
Korea Rail Network Authority (established in January 2005 and renamed to Korea National Railway in September 2020), the former managing train operations while the latter maintains the railway infrastructure. Amongst other benefits, this change was promoted as permitting
open access across the Korean railway system; Korail functioned as the incumbent operator. It is responsible for the management of all railway infrastructure in South Korea, which includes the development of railway stations; these activities are governed and set by various railway policies, budget allocations, and safety standards. Perhaps its most high-profile undertaking of the organisation is the oversight of all railway-related construction projects. Korea National Railway works closely with train operators such as Korail.
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. In December 2016, SR Corporation officially launched
SRT (Super Rapid Train) services, initially running between Suseo–Busan on a newly opened high speed line. Being an open-access operator, it has been charged larger fees for track access by Korea National Railway than those imposed on Korail's
KTX services, paying 50 percent of its sales revenue against the KTX's 34 percent. ==References==