The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Railroad Corp. on Feb. 27 said the latter's integrated travel platform Korail MaaS (Mobility as a Service) reached more than 5.78 million uses just six months after its launch in June last year. Shown are passengers on Jan. 20, 2023, heading to board their train at Seoul Station. (Yonhap News)

By Kim Seon Ah

The Korea Railroad Corp. (Korail)'s integrated travel platform Korail Maas (Mobility as a Service) has made a big splash, nearing six million uses just six months after launch.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Korail on Feb. 27 said the service, which started in June last year, eclipsed 5.78 million uses at the end of last year.

Korail MaaS enables route guidance, train location, parking prepayment, reservation of airport bus tickets and rental cars, and luggage delivery through Korail Talk, a ticket reservation app.

The function of checking a train's location in real time led all others with 5.3 million uses, while that of finding directions from a departure point to the destination saw 250,000.

The number of rental car users skyrocketed an astounding 20-fold from 200 to 4,000 over the surveyed period. Prepayment of parking fees through Korail Talk was also used 172,000 times, a 600% jump from 29,800.

Airline + Rail Link Ticket, a service connected to airlines around the world to raise foreign tourist convenience, was also highly popular. The number of partner carriers rose to 26, with 1,580 people using the service last year.

Since December last year, online reservations for car rental, luggage delivery and tourist taxis are available in English, Chinese, and Japanese.

From next month, Korail will launch a service to reserve food and beverages through the Korail Talk based on train boarding or arrival times and another for picking up packaged items at stores within stations.

sofiakim218@korea.kr