Free Nationwide Timetables Make Hospital, School Commute, and Tourism Travel Tools Possible

You no longer need to collect nationwide timetables yourself

The National Transport Database (국가교통DB), Korea’s public transport data repository, began providing nationwide public transport timetables in GTFS format on September 7, 2026. GTFS is a set of files that separates stops, routes, trip sequences, and arrival and departure times so different services can read them in the same way. Individuals and companies can state their intended use and apply for the data free of charge through the data application page.

The coverage includes city and village buses, urban rail, intercity buses, airport buses, conventional rail, high-speed rail, coastal ferries, and domestic flights. The build report lists 215,724 stops, 27,536 routes, 334,327 trips, and about 18.79 million stop-time records. This is not a matter of scraping bus data from one area. It is large enough to compare travel feasibility across Korea at once.

The cost difference is clear. The estimated price of the data-building project in 2026 was KRW 119 million, while the data fee paid by an applicant is KRW 0. This does not mean a private company would spend the same amount to recreate the data. It does mean that small teams can skip nationwide collection work that would otherwise be difficult to do themselves.

Building the bus GTFS network involved a relatively long period of manual work. Teams can now build a screen that works first with nationwide data, test whether users want it, and then strengthen only the areas where more current information is needed.

But this file is pilot data based on one weekday in March 2025. Some bus times are estimates based on segment travel times, and fares and public-holiday service exceptions are not sufficiently included. Identifier numbers for the same stop also do not fully match across regions and years. The data should therefore not be used as-is for real-time arrival guidance or same-day transfer guarantees.

How the work of a booking manager changes

Consider a booking manager at a rehabilitation clinic with 12 staff as the first user. Assuming the manager handles 20 booking calls a day that include travel questions, they hear the patient’s departure neighborhood and look up both the trip to the clinic and the trip home on a map. The appointment time is copied three times: into a call note, the clinic booking screen, and a patient text message.

The problem is not whether a route exists. It is whether a route exists that fits the appointment time. To make a morning appointment, a patient may need to leave too early. If an afternoon appointment runs long, the final trip home may be gone.

With a tool using nationwide timetables, the manager can enter the patient’s nearby stop, the appointment start and expected end times, and the maximum acceptable walking time. The tool shows both departures that can arrive 30 minutes before the appointment and return options still available if the appointment runs late. It is a screen for screening bookable time slots first, rather than for giving exact directions.

For example, if 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. appointments are open, the tool does not simply recommend the earlier opening. It shows the difference: even the first service arrives late for 10 a.m., while a patient taking the 2 p.m. slot still has a trip home if the appointment runs one hour over. The manager selects a travel-feasible time slot, then makes the final entry in the clinic’s existing booking screen.

If the clinic groups multiple patient origins by neighborhood unit, it can also see where a shuttle should be added. If patients repeatedly lose their trip home on particular weekday afternoons, the clinic has grounds to deploy a vehicle only at that time or shift those cases to home visits. These hypotheses can be tested before collecting nationwide data directly.

Much of the work does not change. A person must still confirm with transport operators whether a service actually runs, holiday timetables, elevator outages, wheelchair-accessible vehicles, and the boarding or alighting help a patient needs. It is safer for the screen to separate weekday-based review results from items that need confirmation, rather than present a confirmed route.

For a commercial service, usage conditions should be clarified first. The National Transport Database states that works to which it holds rights may be freely used with attribution, but its membership terms also include language restricting commercial use and re-provision without prior consent. The scope of the terms and copyright policy appears to overlap. Before redistributing original files or putting them into a paid service, it is recommended to obtain written confirmation from the responsible contact.

What other countries have built on top of timetables

Norway’s Entur aggregates data from 60 transport operators and provides nationwide journey planning and stop information free of charge. It handles about 21,000 daily departures and 3,000 routes, and users can choose walking routes with less walking or routes that avoid stairs and high curbs.

Entur does not stop at publishing timetable files. It operates a nationwide stop directory and route-calculation capability as public infrastructure. Local services can focus on their own user problems—such as tourism, commuting, or accessibility—instead of rebuilding this foundation.

TfL Go in London, United Kingdom, provides step-free routes for wheelchair users and people who need to avoid stairs. It shows elevator outages, the gap between platforms and trains, and whether a manual boarding ramp is needed. Since launch, it has recorded more than 7 million downloads and about 1 million monthly users.

These cases also show that timetable data alone cannot complete an accessibility service. Static timetables need facility information and same-day disruption information on top, and the service must be tested directly with disabled users to become a practical travel tool.

Germany’s GTFS.de organizes publicly available national transport data into a form that services can use easily, updates it frequently, and sells it. A weekly-updated version usable for 30 days is free, while regional files start at about KRW 60,000 per month and a daily-updated Germany-wide version starts at about KRW 150,000 per month, depending on exchange rates.

What customers pay for is not the original timetable. It is cleaning, error handling, selecting the needed coverage, and frequent updates. In Korea, a service may be more viable if it reduces remaining work such as matching stop numbers and managing changes, rather than simply reselling free files.

Four things you can build from here

1. Travel-feasibility checks before hospital bookings

• What it does: Enter appointment start and end times to show weekday round-trip time windows and last-service risk.
• Who uses it: A booking manager at a neighborhood rehabilitation clinic with many older patients arriving by public transport.
• Why now: Nationwide stops and timetables are available free of charge, so the first screen can be tested without recollecting timetables for each area.
• First screen: Fields for the nearby stop, appointment start time, expected end time, and maximum walking time.

2. A timetable for getting home after class

• What it does: For each class end time, it shows the last public transport option a student can take home and alternatives if they miss it.
• Who uses it: A staff member at a vocational education institution recruiting students from township and rural areas but unable to run school buses in every direction.
• Why now: Buses and rail can be compared in one format, making it quicker to divide feasible return times by recruitment area.
• First screen: Inputs for the school location, class end time, the student’s township, village, or neighborhood, and the allowed number of transfers.

3. A last-return information card for accommodations

• What it does: Creates a one-page guidance link showing the weekday last service from a tourist destination to an accommodation and the time guests need to depart.
• Who uses it: A small accommodation operator in an island or mountain area with many guests arriving without rental cars.
• Why now: The same dataset includes rail and coastal ferries as well as buses, so return plans that cross regional boundaries can be tested.
• First screen: Choose an accommodation, a tourist destination, and the time guests must return by, then preview the guidance card to send guests.

4. A stop-number matching checker

• What it does: Upload files from different years or institutions, then find stops with similar names and locations and flag those likely to be the same place.
• Who uses it: A small research or information systems company that handles local government transport analysis and must combine new files every year.
• Why now: Nationwide data now exists, but stop identifiers are not standardized, so manual work to connect files remains.
• First screen: Upload two files to compare, then see suspected duplicates, location moves, and new stops on a map.

Why this matters where you are

Korea’s nationwide timetable release is a Korean condition: it depends on data from the National Transport Database and its stated application process. In your market, check whether public transport operators provide nationwide or regional timetable data, what it costs, how often it is updated, and whether commercial use is permitted. Even where the underlying data differs, screening whether someone can make a hospital visit, return after class, or get back to an accommodation is a concrete user problem to test.

What to check today

Call the National Transport Database contact responsible for public transport data. Ask whether processed route results may be shown in a paid service interface, and whether this is allowed if users cannot download the original files. If you receive a clear permission answer or a written review process within 30 minutes, proceed with a prototype. If prior approval is required for use of the original data itself, limit the work to internal testing until approval is received.