Busan to Gangneung by KTX-Eum

The route

The line starts at Bujeon, a station in central Busan that most visitors never otherwise use; it has its own stop, Bujeon, on Busan Metro Line 1. It runs north through Ulsan and inland to Gyeongju, then east to Pohang on the coast. From Pohang it follows the shore of the East Sea north through Yeongdeok, Uljin, Samcheok and Donghae, and ends at Gangneung.

The coastal section between Yeongdeok and Samcheok was the last piece of the line, and it opened on 1 January 2025 with twelve new stations. For its first year the through trains were slower ITX-Maeum services, which took about five hours. The KTX-Eum, an electric high-speed train, took over on 30 December 2025 and cut the fastest journey to 3 hours 54 minutes, according to the transport ministry.

The Korea Tourism Organization lists nine stops between the two ends: Taehwagang (for Ulsan), Gyeongju, Pohang, Yeongdeok, Uljin, Samcheok, Donghae, Mukho and Jeongdongjin. The ministry's announcement in December 2025 listed nine stations in all, leaving out Mukho and Jeongdongjin. Not every train may stop everywhere, so check the stops on the train you book.

What the rail journey is like

The ride comes in two halves, and the first is the build-up. For the first hour or so the train runs through Busan's northern suburbs, the city of Ulsan and the valleys round Gyeongju, and the sea is nowhere in sight. Pohang announces the coast with its steelworks, the striped chimneys of POSCO that light up in colours after dark. Then the line turns north, and the country begins to change: smaller towns, fishing harbours, headlands running into the sea. One English-language blogger who rode it in summer said the many stops made the journey feel long, but that "the stunning scenery along the way more than makes up for it".

North of Pohang the line comes down to the shore. A travel writer who rode the line in its first month, on the slower ITX-Maeum, picked out the sea near Hupo, in Uljin, and near Geundeok, in Samcheok. The writer found the stretch between Donghae and Gangneung the most dramatic of all. No one publishes how much of the line runs in tunnels, so expect the sea to come and go rather than fill every window.

The northern hour, between Donghae and Gangneung, is the part people remember. On the opening day a Financial News reporter rode one of the first trains out of Gangneung and found passengers crowding the windows past Jeongdongjin, photographing the winter waves and the horizon beside the track. One passenger, Hwang, told the reporter that riding a high-speed train while watching the East Sea "is something different" (our translation). Another said it felt like running over the sea. A writer on the Brunch blog platform, describing a train on the same stretch round Donghae, put it most simply: for that moment, the writer said, the whole train becomes first class (our translation).

The train itself is modern. One rider mentions power points and wireless charging at the seats, and one who took a KTX-Eum to this coast from Seoul found it smooth on winding track. Where the slower trains drew complaints about stiff legs and five hours in a seat, the KTX-Eum gets the same sea in a little under four. It is still a long sit. Bring food and water, and give yourself something to do for the first hour.

What writers and artists have made of it

Jeongdongjin was a quiet stop for a mining coast until 1995, when the SBS drama Sandglass (Moraesigye) filmed one of its best-remembered scenes there. Its heroine waits on the platform, with the sea behind her, for a train she never boards. The series was one of the most watched dramas ever shown in Korea, and visitors have come to the station ever since. A pine tree on the platform is still known by the name of the actress, Ko Hyun-jung. Sandglass Park, about a kilometre away, holds a giant hourglass built for the millennium, with eight tonnes of sand that take a year to run through.

The stages

The KTX-Eum makes the whole run without a change. The stages below follow the line's character rather than its timetable, and the times are the Korea Tourism Organization's, between stops. They add up to about 3 hours 40 minutes, a little less than the full scheduled time.

Busan to Pohang: the run to the coast

The first stretch runs through some of Korea's biggest industrial cities. Gyeongju, the old royal capital, is the one place on this stretch to break the journey for a day or more. Pohang station is outside the city, at Heunghae, so allow time for a taxi or bus if you stop. The reward in town is Space Walk, a 333-metre walkway of curving steel above Hwanho Park, made from the city's own steel. The Korea Times reported that visitors liken it to walking on a roller coaster. From the top you look down on Yeongildae beach on one side and the steelworks on the other.

Yeongdeok and Uljin: crab country

North of Pohang the line enters the stretch that opened in January 2025, and the towns here are known across Korea for one thing: snow crab. At Ganggu harbour in Yeongdeok, the shops of Snow Crab Street line the waterfront, and the town holds its crab festival in March. Further north at Hupo, in Uljin, the morning auction starts at eight.

At Hupo the crabs are laid out in rows on the floor and buyers bid on small wooden boards, while fishermen in long boots spread the catch and women mend nets behind the crowd. The crabs are steamed for ten to fifteen minutes with no seasoning, and then rice is stirred into the shell. The season runs from winter into spring, and the crabs are plumpest in February. The stations along this stretch are new, and the Korea Times reported one seaside village pinning its hopes on the visitors the train will bring.

Stops worth breaking the journey for

Tickets are for one train, so a stop means booking two trains and waiting for the next of only three. These four stations, all in the northern half, repay it most.

Samcheok

A beach town on one of the loveliest stretches of the coast. At Jangho harbour the water is clear to the bottom, and in summer you can paddle a transparent canoe over the fish and seaweed. The Samcheok Ocean Railbike, a pedal cart on rails, runs 5.4 kilometres beside the sea in about an hour; it closes on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month.

Mukho

A working fishing port, its seafood market less than ten minutes' walk from the station. Above it, the narrow lanes of Nongol climb past murals on old walls, one of them a trick-art painting of squid drying on frames, to a lighthouse 67 metres above the sea. The village grew up round the pollack trade in the 1940s and 1950s.

Jeongdongjin

Billed by the Korea Tourism Organization as the world's closest train station to the sea, with the beach about three minutes' walk away. Thousands gather here for the first sunrise of the year. For a walk, the Badabuchae-gil path runs 2.86 kilometres along the cliffs to Simgok, about an hour, past waves on strange-shaped rocks and a beach of pebbles.

Gangneung

The end of the line, the best place to stay, and a city that calls itself Korea's coffee capital. Cafés line Anmok beach looking out to sea, and Gyeongpo Lake has a promenade of about four kilometres, with cherry blossom in spring. Both are about 15 minutes by taxi or bus from the station.

Planning the journey

Book on Korail's English website or app, as for any Korean train; our guide to getting around South Korea explains how, with a foreign card and your passport. On most Korean lines seats open about a month ahead; we could not confirm this for the KTX-Eum, so check Korail as soon as your dates are fixed. An online timetable we read on 5 November 2026 gave about ₩46,800 for a standard-class seat for the whole run, on a train on 1 November. Korail's own price, shown when you book, is the one to trust. We could not confirm the first-class fare.

Where to sit

The sea lies to the east, so sit on the right going north from Busan, and on the left going south from Gangneung. Choose a window seat when you book.

The pass, the ends and the sunrise

We could not confirm from Korail whether the Korea Rail Pass covers the KTX-Eum on this line. Our page on whether you need the Korea Rail Pass explains the pass; check its current terms before relying on it here. At the other end, Gangneung has KTX trains to Seoul in typically under two hours, so the line makes a loop possible: Seoul to Busan, the coast to Gangneung, and back to Seoul.

The trains from Gangneung leave at 09:36, 14:56 and 18:35 (check the current times when you book), and we could not confirm the times from Busan. None of this suits the famous east-coast sunrise. For that, spend a night in Gangneung or at Jeongdongjin and go to the beach early. Our guide to where to stay in Gangneung compares the areas.

If the journey breaks down

Most journeys go to plan, and the train is the reliable part. What goes wrong is usually the booking, so plan for that first.

• Sold out. Try other dates or the other direction. With only three KTX-Eum trains a day, there is no hourly fallback on this line.
• A missed train. The next one may be hours later. We could not find Korail's refund and change rules for this service in English, so read them when you book.
• Storms. Typhoons reach this coast in late summer, and the Donghae Line was suspended for Typhoon Khanun in August 2023. If a storm is forecast, check Korail's service notices before you travel and keep your plans flexible.
• Stopping early. Every stop is a full station, so you can leave the train at any of them. You will need a new ticket to carry on.