Seoul, July 20 (IANS) The number of foreigners using South Korea’s railway services reached nearly 3 million in the first half of this year, nearly doubling from two years earlier, local railway operators said on Sunday.

From January to June, a total of 85.09 million passengers used the railway services, with foreigners accounting for 2.84 million, or 3.3 percent, according to SR, the operator of the SRT high-speed train service, and Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL), the operator of KTX high-speed trains and regular trains.

The first-half figure for foreign passengers rose 13 percent from 2.5 million during the same period in 2024 and surged 99 percent from 1.43 million in the first half of 2023, reports Yonhap news agency.

Since July last year, KORAIL has operated a priority ticket counter for foreign customers at Seoul Station and adopted an AI-based voice recognition translation program that offers services in 13 languages.

In November, KORAIL revamped its multilingual website to let foreign passengers choose seats, arrange luggage delivery and book rental car services more easily without language barriers.

In May, SRT also launched multilingual services on its mobile app, allowing ticket reservations and timetable searches in English, Chinese and Japanese to better serve foreign passengers.

If the current growth trend continues in the second half, the total number of foreign railway passengers is expected to surpass 6 million this year, up from 5.61 million in 2024 and 3.49 million in 2023.

Meanwhile, Hanwha Philly Shipyard, owned by South Korea’s chemicals-to-shipbuilding conglomerate Hanwha Group, is considering bidding for the U.S. Navy’s combat support ship construction project, the group said on Sunday.

At a recent media briefing in Philadelphia, the shipyard’s CEO David Kim said Hanwha is in “discussions” about participating in the project.

An additional U.S. defence budget of more than US$20 billion has been approved for the construction of combat and support ships, he said, adding the Senate and House of Representatives are discussing how to execute the funding.

—IANS

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