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| The rail workers' strike has forced KORAIL to suspend some of its trains to popular winter tourism destinations. / Korea Times |
By Yun Suh-young
The prolonged strike of unionized workers at the Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL) is increasingly affecting the tourism industry. Most notably, many of the country's popular winter trains to seaside towns ― which would have otherwise been packed with travelers looking to enjoy the winter scenery and sunrise before the year's end ― have been sidelined.
KORAIL has already suspended 20 of its ''snow'' trains running through Gangwon Province through the end of the year. With the labor action intensifying in the face of government opposition, January doesn't look safe either.
Other trains operating along the coastal areas, such as the ''Sea Train'' and ''Haerang,'' have been suspended as well. The popular ''Wine & Cinema Train,'' which connects Seoul with Yeongdong, North Chungchung Province, is offline too.
If you had been planning to take the train to popular sunrise destinations such as Jeongdongjin in Gangwon Province, Homigot in North Gyeongsang Province and Hyangiram in South Jeolla Province for New Year's Eve, just forget about it.
Through its website, KORAIL announced that the tickets bought for the canceled train travels will be fully refunded. It has been months since the trains to the sunrise destinations have been fully booked. Those who bought tickets for New Year's Eve will have the expiration date extended to Jan. 31.
"We have regular train services and temporary operation trains which are specially added for New Year's Eve but the 12 trains added as temporary services are likely to be entirely halted unless the union workers return to work," said a KORAIL official.
KORAIL's train services have been reduced to 70 percent of normal operations as the rail union's walkout approaches the three-week mark.
The rail union's strike came in opposition to the government's decision to set up a KORAIL subsidiary to manage a potentially lucrative bullet train service from Suseo, southern Seoul.
The union claims the government's decision is a disguised plan to privatize the company, while the government has denied this accusation.
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