Nearly 800,000 train fare evasions caught in 3 years, but enforcers have almost no way to collect

Train fare evasion shows no sign of letting up as the chuseok holiday travel rush gets underway. Beyond simple ticketless boarding, offenders are increasingly using AI to forge or alter tickets, or transferring discounted and named tickets to other passengers.

According to data submitted to Rep. Bok Ki-wang of the Democratic Party of Korea — who leads his party's side on the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee — by Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail), a total of 795,086 fare-evasion cases were detected over the past three years. The annual breakdown shows 240,241 cases in 2023, 284,664 in 2024 and 270,181 in 2025, meaning more than 200,000 violations were caught every year.

The methods used are growing more varied. Some passengers use AI programs to forge or alter tickets, while others transfer commuter passes or named tickets to third parties.

Abuse of discount schemes has also emerged as a pattern. Detected violations include fraudulent use of basic fare discounts, misuse of public-benefit discount tickets intended for people with disabilities and military personnel, the transfer of commercially discounted tickets — such as those for a pregnant passenger's companion — to unqualified riders, and continued use of expired commuter passes. Ticketless boarding remains a persistent problem as well.

Bok's analysis points to a fundamental enforcement gap: even when train crew members catch a fare evader, they have no means to compel payment of the surcharge on the spot if the passenger refuses.

Under current law, unpaid surcharges can be recovered by referring cases to the railway police or pursuing civil litigation, but both routes are time-consuming and costly for small amounts. Staff who press passengers for payment or attempt to hand them over to railway police also risk confrontations.

"With so many people traveling by train during the chuseok holiday, rigorous management of fare evasion is essential," Bok said. "As evasion methods grow more sophisticated — from ticket forgery to discount abuse — the legal framework for collecting surcharges at the point of detection must also be strengthened."

He added that giving rail operators a mechanism to enforce surcharge collection — similar to how highway toll arrears are handled — could deter evasion. "At the same time, reasonable safeguards should be put in place, such as allowing passengers who incurred a surcharge due to unavoidable circumstances or an honest mistake to pay after the fact," he said.