First Day of Railroad Union General Strike... KTX Operating at 76% of Usual Capacity

Maintaining Commute Operation Rate at 80~90% Level
Strike Participation at Approximately 21.7% of Commuters

On the first day of the nationwide strike by the Korea Railroad Workers' Union (Railroad Union), trains operated at 76% of their usual capacity. Out of 12,905 employees scheduled to work, 2,804 (21.7%) participated in the strike.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that as of 3 p.m. on the 14th, the nationwide train operation rate was 76.4% of normal due to the strike by the Korea Railroad Workers' Union. The operation rates by train type were KTX 76.4%, passenger trains 68.1%, metropolitan subway 83.0%, and freight trains 26.3%.

The number of trains canceled due to the Railroad Union strike totaled 941. This includes 101 KTX trains, 36 Saemaeul trains, 81 Mugunghwa trains, 546 metropolitan trains, and 138 freight trains.

The Ministry deployed 4,950 replacement personnel, including 496 engineers, 999 crew members, and 3,455 other staff. Accordingly, as of 3 p.m. that day, the operation rate was 111.9% of the originally planned schedule. In particular, the metropolitan subway is expected to maintain operation rates of 90% or more during the morning rush hours (7?9 a.m.) and 80% or more during the evening rush hours (6?8 p.m.).

The Ministry reported that as of 10 a.m. that day, 21.7% of employees scheduled to work participated in the Railroad Union strike. This participation rate is slightly lower than the 22.8% recorded on the first day of the last general strike by the Railroad Union in 2019.

The Ministry is operating an emergency transportation countermeasure headquarters in response to the Railroad Union strike. Depending on negotiations with the Railroad Union, the Ministry plans to decide on the cancellation of additional tickets by the 15th. There will be no refund fees for canceled tickets.

Some expect that this railroad strike will accelerate government reforms of Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL). Earlier this year, the Ministry commissioned a study titled “In-depth Diagnosis and Improvement Plan for the Railroad Safety System,” signaling a comprehensive reform of KORAIL.

Regarding this, the Ministry stated, "There is no fixed plan to announce the in-depth diagnosis and improvement plan for the railroad safety system in October or to separate the facility maintenance sector currently performed by KORAIL." The commissioned study is focused on establishing safety measures to prevent the recurrence of recent frequent railroad accidents.

The Ministry added, "Through the consulting project, we are conducting an in-depth diagnosis of overall domestic railroad safety by comparing it with overseas cases, including accident prevention and recovery systems, accident response systems, and safety management and supervision systems. Control and maintenance are only part of this."

Meanwhile, the Ministry announced that the consulting project has been temporarily suspended to allow KORAIL and the Korea Rail Network Authority, which are subject to safety function diagnosis, to focus on disaster response such as heatwaves and typhoons, and plans to resume it in October.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.