South Korea launches super app for seamless travel booking across trains, buses and taxis

South Korea is rolling out a new app that lets users search routes, book tickets and pay for a range of transportation options — from trains and buses to taxis and flights — all in one place.

The Metropolitan Area Transportation Commission under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced Wednesday it will launch a K-MaaS (Mobility as a Service) transportation app timed to the ITS World Congress in Gangneung.

The ITS World Congress is an annual gathering where industry, academia and government representatives from around the world exchange ideas on intelligent transportation system technology, research and policy. This year marks its 32nd edition.

Unlike the current approach — where users rely on separate apps such as Naver Maps for route searches and Korail Talk or the high-speed bus Tmoney app for individual bookings — K-MaaS offers a one-stop service covering route searches, reservations and payments for trains, buses, taxis and other modes of transport in a single application.

The commission has been running a K-MaaS pilot program since 2024. Under the initiative, the Korea Expressway Corporation serves as an intermediary platform that aggregates and relays data from individual transport operators, which private service platform providers then use to power a real-time search, booking and payment app called Super Move.

For the Gangneung congress — the world's largest advanced transportation event, drawing some 60,000 industry professionals from about 90 countries — the commission will launch and operate a dedicated K-MaaS app tailored to the event. It has signed MOUs with relevant agencies to provide one-stop transportation services throughout the congress.

Foreign visitors attending the event can download the app, enter the Gangneung venue as their destination, receive route guidance, and book and pay for trains and shuttle buses to the venue. They can also use QR check-in for convenient entry.

"Through Thursday's agreement, we have launched the K-MaaS service — previously available only through the private Super Move app — as an app tailored to an international event," Metropolitan Area Transportation Commission Chairman Kim Yong-seok said. "We plan to gradually develop it into a model for boosting regional transportation use that contributes to the growth of small and mid-sized cities, expanding beyond improved local transport convenience to also drive inbound tourism."