Rail transport in Turkey


Turkey has a well-developed, state-owned railway system built to standard gauge which falls under the remit of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. The primary rail carrier is the Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları which is responsible for all long-distance and cross-border freight and passenger trains. A number of other companies operate suburban passenger trains in urban conurbations.
Native railway industry extends to the production of locomotives, passenger vehicles and freight wagons; some vehicles are also produced through licensing agreements and cooperation with foreign countries.
In the early 21st century, major infrastructural projects were realized; such as the construction of a high-speed railway network as well as a tunnel under the Bosphorus strait which connects Europe and Anatolia by rail for the first time.
Turkey is a member of the International Union of Railways. The UIC Country Code for Turkey is 75.

History

Construction of the first railway line in Turkey began in 1856, being constructed by a British company that had gained permission from the Ottoman Empire. Later, French and German companies also constructed lines - the motivation was not only economic, the region had a strategically important position as a trade route between Europe and Asia.
As with other countries, rapid expansion followed; by 1922 over 8000 km of lines had been constructed in the Ottoman Empire. At the birth of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, there were 3,660 km of standard gauge lines, of which 1,378 km were state-owned; while the lines owned by foreign investors were eventually nationalized starting from 1927. The railways were considered an essential part of the state by the government of the Republic, and continued to expand with new railway projects - over 3000 km of new tracks were built in Turkey between 1923 and 1940. Railways were constructed serving mines, agriculture, people and ports; at the same time more lines serving eastern Anatolia were built, in their part helping to tie Turkey together as a functioning state.
In the years following World War II, the emphasis in transportation shifted to asphalt road and highway construction; it was not until the end of the 20th century that railways returned to favour with major passenger infrastructure projects being initiated, and five thousand kilometres of new lines planned for construction.

Future restructuring and plans

The Turkish State Railways may be split with the passenger and freight operations being part of a new company named DETAŞ with TCDD left as a track and infrastructure operator. This restructuring will also allow other rail operators to run trains on TCDD tracks by means of track access charges, and will end the monopoly of TCDD.
The new law about liberalization of Turkish railway transportation is accepted by Turkish Parliament and approved by the President of Turkey in April 2013. According to the law, TCDD will stay as the owner of infrastructure and the new company TCDD Taşımacılık AŞ will be operating the trains. Private companies will soon be allowed to run on TCDD infrastructure as well as the new infrastructure owned by private companies if
constructed.
Turkish Ministry of Transportation has a plan of constructing 4000 km conventional and 10000 km high speed lines till 2023. There are also some commuter rail projects like Marmaray and Başkentray.

Network

In 2008, Turkey had 10,991 km of railway lines, of which 95% were single-tracked, 21% of the network was electrified and 28% signalled. Due to the mountainous geography of the country, the network has many steep gradients and sharp curves.
As of June 2016, there is 8334 km of conventional railway line and 593 km of high-speed railway line. 2288 km of the network is electrified, and 3036 km of it is signaled. Turkish Ministry of Transportation has a plan of constructing 2000 km conventional and 5000 km high speed lines till 2023.
Electrified lines run from Kapıkule on the Bulgarian border via Istanbul to Ankara, and from Divriği via Malatya to İskenderun on the Mediterranean coast. Additionally, Sivas and İzmir have electrified networks.
Here are some technical informations about the Turkish railway system:
The first completed section of the high-speed rail line between Ankara and Eskişehir was opened by the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 13, 2009.
As of May 2016, there are four high-speed routes running on two different high-speed railway lines. Bursa, Sivas and Izmir are among some of other cities to be connected to the high-speed network with works being underway. Bursa will be connected to the Ankara-Istanbul high-speed railway, a new line is currently being constructed from Ankara to Sivas and another new line from Polatlı to İzmir via Afyon is also under construction.
Lines are also planned from Yerköy to Kayseri and another one from Halkalı to Edirne on Turkey's European border with Bulgaria.

Passenger transport

In addition to high speed lines, there are several regular trains for passenger transportation. Almost all the network is covered by these passenger trains, which are mostly departing every day. In addition to high speed trains, there are several types of wagons being used for railway transport like pulman, sleeping cars, couchette, dmu and emu sets. In 2011 more than 26 million passengers used trains for domestic transportation. Due to cancellation of many trains because of renewals of rail network, ridership decrease to less than 20 million in 2012. As of 2013, the ridership reached to 20.9 million.
As of May 2016, there are several construction points in Turkish rail network which is causing complete or partial closures.

Railway links with adjacent countries

West neighboring countries

Trains to Iraq must be routed via Syria; the section of the tracks within Syria, between the Turkish and Iraqi borders is 81 km long. From March 5, 2012 due to the civil war in Syria, all rail services from Turkey to Syria were stopped; as a consequence freight going from Turkey to Iraq was routed to Nusaybin in southeast Turkey, from where it was transported to Iraq by truck.
The Iranian rail network is connected to the Turkish rail network via the Lake Van train ferry close to the border - which creates a serious bottleneck. In 2007 an agreement was made to create a rail link between the two countries.
A new connection to the Caucasus region and Central Asia via Georgia and Azerbaijan is planned ; the line will involve a break of gauge from to. The construction of the line is planned to be completed by 2014 and has a target of transporting 17 million tons of cargo per year. This railway by-passes the Kars–Gyumri–Tbilisi railway line that connected Turkey to Armenia which was closed in 1993 during the Nagorno-Karabakh War; in 2009 the possibility of re-opening the line was stated by the Armenian transport minister.

Urban rail

Commuter

The biggest three cities of Turkey have suburban rail system, listed as follows:
CitySystemOperatorElectrificationConductor systemGaugeBidirectional traffic
İstanbulMarmarayTCDD Taşımacılık A.Ş.25 kV, 50 Hz ACOverhead lineRight-hand traffic
AnkaraBaşkentrayTCDD Taşımacılık A.Ş.25 kV, 50 Hz ACOverhead lineRight-hand traffic
İzmirEgerayİZBAN A.Ş.25 kV, 50 Hz ACOverhead lineRight-hand traffic

Metro/LRT

The biggest five cities of Turkey have Metro/LRT system, listed as follows:
CitySystemElectrificationConductor systemGaugeBidirectional trafficOpened
İstanbulİstanbul Metro750 V DC & 1,500 V DCThird rail & Overhead lineRight-hand traffic3 September 1989
AnkaraAnkara Metro750 V DCThird railRight-hand traffic20 August 1996
İzmirİzmir Metro750 V DCThird railRight-hand traffic22 April 2000
BursaBursaray1,500 V DCOverhead lineRight-hand traffic24 April 2002
AdanaAdana Metro750 V DCOverhead lineRight-hand traffic14 May 2010
KonyaKonya Metro750 V DC ??Overhead line ??Right-hand trafficplanned 03-July 2020

Tram

There are also several tram systems in many cities, listed as follows:
CitySystemElectrificationConductor systemGaugeBidirectional trafficOpened
İstanbulIstanbul Tram750 V DCOverhead lineRight-hand traffic13 June 1992
İzmirİzmir Tram750 V DCOverhead lineRight-hand trafficUnder construction
BursaBurtram750 V DCOverhead lineRight-hand traffic13 October 2013
AntalyaAntalya Tram750 V DCOverhead lineRight-hand traffic27 March 1999
KonyaKonya Tram750 V DCOverhead lineRight-hand traffic28 September 1992
GaziantepGaziantep Tram750 V DCOverhead lineRight-hand traffic?
KayseriKayseray750 V DCOverhead lineRight-hand traffic2009
SamsunSamsun Tram750 V DCOverhead lineRight-hand traffic10 October 2010
EskişehirEstram750 V DCOverhead lineRight-hand traffic24 December 2004

Nostalgic tramway

CitySystemElectrificationConductor systemGaugeBidirectional traffic
İstanbulİstanbul Tram600 V DCOverhead linePartially
BursaBurtram?Overhead lineNo
Antalya??Overhead lineNo?

Companies

Turkish State Railways

In combination with its affiliates, the State Railways of the Republic of Turkey have a monopoly on passenger and freight rail transportation, as well as the manufacturing of rolling stock and tracks. The organization was created in 1927 to operate the former railway lines of the Ottoman Empire that were left within the borders of the Republic of Turkey whose boundaries were defined with the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. Additionally, major ports are also operated by the company.

Affiliated companies

Three affiliated companies of the TCDD produce rolling stock for the Turkish railway system:
As of 2008, there were 8,699 km of main railway lines in Turkey, of which 5% are double tracked, 28% are electrified and 25% are signalled; there are also 2,306 km of sidings.
The most common rail weight is ~49 kg/m with 69% of track, the remainder being of lighter weight rail, except for 150 km of 60 kg/m rail. Similarly, 69% of sleepers are of the concrete type, with the remainder being wood and steel. Over 700 tunnels exist, with a total length of 181 km; the majority are under 1 km long and only one of them has a length of over 4 km. 1,316 steel bridges and over 10,000 concrete bridges exist, the majority are suitable for axle loads over 20 t, with 40% allowing axle loads of 22.5 tonnes.
In 2008, there were 64 electric locomotives and 549 diesel locomotives in Turkey, with availabilities of 81 and 84 percent, respectively. Additionally, 50 steam locomotives exist, of which 2 are kept in active order. In addition to the 83 EMUs and 44 DMUs for passenger transport, there were 995 coaches in Turkey Over 17,000 wagons of various types make up the rest of the fleet.