General Trains in South Korea

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General Trains is the English name used here for the official passenger timetable family 일반열차. It is not one train model: the family contains ITX-Maum, ITX-Saemaeul, Saemaeul-ho, Mugunghwa-ho and Nuriro services. Together they provide conventional intercity and regional connections across South Korea.

General Trains complement KTX through different stopping patterns, corridors and regional roles. They serve the main north–south axes as well as cross-country, inland and coastal Lines, reaching many intermediate stations that do not appear in the same way in the high-speed timetable. This overview covers the standard timetable effective September 1, 2026. The parent Railways in South Korea page explains how these services fit into the wider passenger railway.

General Trains at a glance

Topic	Current scope
Current timetable	Effective September 1, 2026
Scheduled General Train numbers	356
General Train Lines	15
Stations in the current General Train timetable	231
Current service types	ITX-Maum, ITX-Saemaeul, Saemaeul-ho, Mugunghwa-ho and Nuriro

Counts refer to scheduled train numbers in the current timetable, not physical trainsets.

Service types in the General Train timetable

The timetable uses five service labels. Each identifies a named service type, but the name by itself does not establish a universal stopping pattern: destinations, stops and operating days depend on the individual scheduled service and Line.

Service type	Korean name	Scheduled train numbers
Mugunghwa-ho	`무궁화호`	177
ITX-Maum	`ITX-마음`	95
ITX-Saemaeul	`ITX-새마을`	48
Nuriro	`누리로`	24
Saemaeul-ho	`새마을호`	12

Mugunghwa-ho is the largest group in the current General Train timetable and appears across major and regional corridors. ITX-Maum is the second-largest group and includes both long-distance patterns and distinctive services such as the Hongseong Station (홍성역) circular trains. ITX-Saemaeul appears on several principal intercity routes. Nuriro and Saemaeul-ho form smaller groups in this timetable. The five names are therefore parts of one official timetable family, not interchangeable descriptions for every conventional train.

The regional role of General Trains

General Trains connect large cities while also giving the national timetable a much denser regional reach. On the Gyeongbu corridor, services link Seoul Station (서울역) and Busan Station (부산역) through regional and metropolitan stops including Suwon Station (수원역), Cheonan Station (천안역), Daejeon Station (대전역) and Dongdaegu Station (동대구역). In the southwest, Honam and Jeolla patterns connect Yongsan Station (용산역) with Iksan Station (익산역), Gwangju Station (광주역), Mokpo Station (목포역), Jeonju Station (전주역), Suncheon Station (순천역) and Yeosu-Expo Station (여수EXPO역), using stopping patterns distinct from KTX.

Regional Lines add other directions. The Chungbuk Line connects Daejeon Station (대전역) and Jecheon Station (제천역) through Jochiwon Station (조치원역), Cheongju Station (청주역) and Chungju Station (충주역). The Gyeongbuk Line links Gimcheon Station (김천역) and Yeongju Station (영주역). East-coast and mountain services use the Donghae, Yeongdong and Taebaek Lines, while the Seoul Suburb and Seohae Lines provide different connections in and around the Capital Area and western Chungcheong region.

Many scheduled services appear in more than one Line context as they continue across connected corridors. Line totals therefore describe each published Line's service context and should not be added together to recreate the family total.

The stations below are listed in the down direction shown in the official timetable. The station list for each Line includes every station served by at least one scheduled train in the current timetable. Individual trains may stop at only a subset of these stations. In this context, “down direction” follows the timetable’s own directional convention and does not necessarily mean north to south.

The fifteen General Train Lines

These Lines follow the organization of the official passenger timetable. They are not intended as a complete catalogue of every physical railway track in South Korea.

General Train Gyeongbu Line (`일반열차 경부선`)

View General Train Gyeongbu Line details and timetables

The General Train Gyeongbu Line is the principal conventional corridor between Seoul Station (서울역) and Busan Station (부산역). Its current timetable serves major cities and intermediate regional communities with stopping patterns distinct from KTX.