Turkey - General Information
Country Name
Turkey (Türkiye)
National Railway System
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları. The state railway is normally abbreviated as TCDD, which in translation means State Railways of the Republic of Turkey.
Language
Turkish. Modern Turkish script is based on Latin script. However, some special characters are used for language specific sounds. Turkish is the only official language.
Foreign languages are spoken only infrequently in the country. Occasionally, German may be encountered, with some English or French in the West. Apart from İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir, most of the places served by the railway system are far away from the main tourist areas, and only Turkish is spoken.
Currency
Turkish Pound (Türk Lira)
UIC code
numeric 75; alpha TR
Timetable
Journey Planner
- Ankara - Eskişehir high speed service: www.hizlitrenbileti.com
- Domestic travel: Only a very rudimentary journey planner is available. Click on the 'Train Information' tab. A small scale map is displayed, giving only the principal towns. Click on the town on the map to select the departure and arrival locations. Only direct trains are shown: potential passengers appear to be expected to work out their own possible connections.
- Trains to Europe: www.tcdd.gov.tr/tcdding/avrupa_ing.htm gives details of trains to/from Belgrade, Bucharest and Thessaloniki.
- Trains to the Middle East: www.tcdd.gov.tr/tcdding/ortadogu_ing.htm gives details of trains to/from Tehran, Damascus, Aleppo and (in theory) Mosul.
Downloadable Timetable
None available.
Printed Timetable
There is no longer an official printed timetable in Turkey. Usually, train departures (and sometimes arrivals) are shown on station boards with the terminating station and the train name often being the only information. Intermediate timings etc. are frequently not given. Timetables change irregularly and without prior notice to the public but, as the timetable structure is fairly static, they at least give an indication of service frequency. The only exception is international traffic between İstanbul and Bulgaria, where timetables appear to change in line with European practice, to which BDŽ adheres. The standard symbols indicating days of operation (such as crossed hammers for Mondays to Saturdays) are not used; days are shown by abbreviations of the Turkish names.
Engineering Information
None available.
Gauge
Standard.
Electrification
25kV 50Hz
The following lines are electrified: İstanbul to Kapıkule; İstanbul to Ankara; Ankara suburban lines; İskenderun - Toprakkale - Fevzipaşa - Malatya - Çetinkaya - Divriği, İzmir suburban lines (Aliağa - Menderes).
Rule of the road
Right. However 95% of the network is single track.
Private Railways
None
Tourist Lines
None
Metro
Ankara, İstanbul
Tram/LRT-systems
Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, İstanbul, İzmir, Kayseri. New systems opening soon in Gaziantep and Samsun.
Special Notes
Many trains run every day of the week but some Ekspresi (Express) services run only every other day. Suburban services are usually subject to a different weekend schedule.
Trains can be very crowded. For all main line express trains, especially during weekends and during the school holiday period July - September, reservations are recommended. For express services on the main routes, each station served has a fixed allocation of tickets and no more are normally sold once this is exhausted. Some İstanbul - Ankara express trains generally require reservation. Reserved seats are not marked as such.
Punctuality of long distance trains is often low, and with the exception of a few dedicated connecting services, trains would usually not wait for possible late running feeder services. The operational practice appears to be that a train - once running late - has a lower priority than other trains still on time.
Recent and future changes=
The first stage of the 533 km İstanbul - Ankara high speed line, signalled to ETCS level 1 and with a design speed of 250 km/h, was opened to public traffic on 14 March 2009 between Sincan and Inönü, west of Eskişehir. The second phase between İnönü and Köseköy, extends to Gebze at the end of the İstanbul suburban area, and utilises the 15km section avoiding İzmit city centre (operational since August 1999). It was scheduled to open in 2008 but this will be delayed for many years.
A 112 km high speed line is under construction from Polatlı, on the Ankara - İstanbul line, to Konya was scheduled to be completed by 2010 but no opening date is yet known.
A 466 km high-speed line between Ankara and Sivas via Kirikkale, Yerköy and Yozgat has been put out for tender. A feasibility study for an eastward extension to Kars via Erzincan and Erzurum was started in 2006.
Plans for a 606 km high speed line from Izmir to Ankara have been approved. The line will pass though Afyon and meet the Ankara - Istanbul line near Polatlı. It was originally planned to be finished by 2013 but works are now expected to start in 2019.
Plans for a Mustafakemalpaşa (off the Balikesir-Bandirma line) – Bursa – Bilecik link, a conventional 160/200 km/h passenger/freight line, have been revived and this project will probably be put out for tender in 2011.
The biggest project of all is the Bosphorus crossing (Marmaray project) which will connect the European and Asian networks. This consists of a 13.6 km double track tunnel from Yenikapı to Haydarpaşa, including a 1.4 km immersed-tube tunnel (the the world's deepest), and also modernisation of the Sirkeci - Halkali and Haydarpaşa - Gebze suburban lines. The Marmaray tunnel was completed on the 23 September 2008. Completion of the entire project has been repeatedly delayed, largely due to the discovery of a Byzantine-era archaeological find on the proposed site of the European tunnel terminal in 2005. As of December 2009, completion was expected in October 2013. However, the contract with Alsthom (part of a local consortium) has been cancelled and the outstanding work on the project is to be re-tendered.
In May, 2008 talks started between Iran and Turkey about replacing the Lake Van train ferry with a double track electrified railway but this seems most unlikely to happen.
