Korail "Over 90% Satisfaction with Chuseok Ticket Reservations for Transportation Vulnerable Groups"

It was found that 9 out of 10 transportation-vulnerable passengers who booked Chuseok holiday train tickets were satisfied with their use. Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) announced on the 11th that 90.9% of respondents answered that they were satisfied in a customer satisfaction survey related to holiday train ticket reservations for transportation-vulnerable passengers.

Seoul Station during last year's Chuseok holiday / Photo by Yonhap News

This survey was conducted to gather opinions on the convenience of booking Chuseok train tickets for transportation-vulnerable passengers (elderly, disabled, national merit recipients) recently, and was carried out through Consumer Insight, a professional public opinion research agency. Among 27,000 transportation-vulnerable passengers who participated in the booking, 5,000 were randomly selected, and 1,062 of them (696 elderly, 346 disabled, 20 national merit recipients) responded to the survey. They answered questions about the ticket booking methods, their most preferred booking method, and satisfaction levels.

Among the 27,000 transportation-vulnerable passengers, 50% used mobile, 35% used PC, and 15% used telephone in that order. 97.6% of respondents were able to book the tickets they wanted, and 98.1% said that the 'Transportation-Vulnerable Consideration Booking Service' is necessary.

Satisfaction by booking method was highest for mobile at 92.3%, followed by PC at 91.0%, and telephone at 89.4%. Additionally, 95.6% of online (PC and mobile) users and 92.4% of telephone users responded that it was more convenient than booking at the existing station counters (offline). In particular, the most preferred holiday train ticket booking methods were online (PC and mobile) at 67.3%, telephone at 27.8%, and station counters at 4.8%.

KORAIL is promoting various methods such as producing YouTube videos and distributing informational posters through related organizations (Korea Senior Citizens Human Resources Development Institute, Korean Senior Citizens Association) to help transportation-vulnerable passengers book holiday train tickets more easily online.

Meanwhile, the number of transportation-vulnerable train tickets booked this year increased by about 36,000 seats compared to last Chuseok, totaling approximately 112,000 seats sold. In particular, telephone bookings sold about 13,000 seats, more than doubling compared to last Chuseok (about 5,000 seats). KORAIL analyzed this as a result of expanding supply seats (from 10% to 20%), allocating seats exclusively for telephone bookings, increasing telephone counselors (from 70 to 120), extending the booking period (from 1 day to 2 days), shortening telephone call times, and distributing guides and videos on how to book online.