The total number of Korea's railway passengers hit a record high last year, driven by growing demand for high-speed train services, the transport ministry said Wednesday. A total of 172.2 million people traveled by train in 2025, up 0.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The country's two high-speed rail services — KTX and SRT — carried a record 118.7 million passengers last year, up 2.6 percent from a year ago. About 93 million people used KTX, averaging 254,000 riders per day, while some 26 million traveled on SRT, with a daily average of 71,000. However, the number of conventional train passengers fell 3.6 percent on-year to 53 million last year. The Seoul-Busan line was the busiest route, with 83.6 million railway travelers, including 61.4 million on high-speed trains. Seoul Station was the busiest train station last year, handling 43.9 million passengers, followed by Busan train station with 26.1 million and Dongdaegu train station with 20.5 million.