Transport corridor of Turkish railway

The history of rail transport in Turkey began with the start of the placement in 1856 of a 130 kilometres railway line between Izmir and Aydı n. The first finished Ottoman railway line was a 66 kilometres line between Kö stence (Romania today) and Boğ azkö y (Romania today) built in 1859-1860.

The state corporation that manages the Turkish railway system, Turkish State Railways, subdivides the history into the Pre-Republic period, the Republic period and the period after 1950. All these three periods have their own distinctive characteristics. The first period is characterized by the construction of the railway lines in return for granting privileges to the foreigners; in the second period railway transportation experienced its golden age and in the third period, railways is neglected and ignored.

The railroad network transferred from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic administration was around 4, 000 km. The construction of the railroad network between 1923-1938 was given a special importance and a total of 3, 000 km of new railroads were constructed.

Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia were connected to Ankara and the port cities with railways. The responsibility for constructing and operating railroads was given to the Ministry of Transportation as of 1929 and it was assumed in 1953 by the organization called the " Republic of Turkey State Railroads (TCDD) Enterprise".

The TCDD, which gives service through seven operational regions presently, operates also the seven big ports of Turkey with 50 million tons of loading/unloading capacity including Istanbul (Haydarpasa), Izmir and Mersin ports in the first place. In Turkey, over 1000 settlement units are interconnected by 10.500 km's of railroad network.

Electrified management is carried out in approximately 20 percent of the present lines. The share of railroads in the transportation sector approached 10 percent as of 1998.

From 1980 onwards, rail freight tonne-kilometers transported by the TCDD rose slightly from 5000million tonne-km in 1980 to 7000million tonne-km in 1990 and to 9000million tonne-km in 2000. Approximately 50% of freight moved is minerals or ores, food/agricultural products, chemicals/petroleum, and metal sectors. International freight accounted for approximately 5% of totals in 2000.

There are such important train routes in Turkey as:

- Istanbul – Ankara

- Istanbul – Izmir

- Ankara – Izmir

- Istanbul - Thrace (Edirne)

- Izmir - Airport - Selç uk - Aydı n - Denizli (Pamukkale) and etc.

The Istanbul – Ankara rail line is the most popular connection. There are several daily trains on this line.

TCDD lines are located on the shortest international corridor between Asia and Europe. The multi-modal Pan-European Transport Corridor 4 connects Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. So, The TCDD operates four international services to Europe, three of which are from Istanbul: The Bosphorus Express to Bucharest; the Balkan Express to Sofia and Belgrade, and the Dostluk/Filia Ekspresi (Turkish/Greek " Friendship Express") to Thessaloniki which is a night train with sleeping coaches, and one from Pythion to Thessaloniki. These trains play a great role, because they provide connections between Europe and Asia not only by road, but also by rail. Several trains run between cities in south-eastern Turkey and the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Damascus. Turkish State Railways has three trains connecting Turkey with Iran: Van - Tebriz Train, Iran-Turkey-Syria Train and Trans Asya Treni.

Turkey's best trains are now modern & air-conditioned. Much of the rail network was built by the Germans. However, the first section of a new high-speed line from Istanbul to Ankara opened in March 2009, and journey time will be reduced to just 3 hours by 2015, beating both buses & flights. An Ankara-Konya high-speed line has now opened, and more sections of high-speed line are also under construction.

Map of major cities, connected by railways and just map of railways we can see below.

Viktoriia Demydenko, FML 107