Rail transport in Turkey

The Turkish State Railways (TCDD) may be split with the passenger and freight operations being part of a new company named DETAŞ (Demiryolu Taşımacılığı Anonim Şirketi, meaning Railway Transport Company) with TCDD left as a track and infrastructure operator.[10] 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.[11]

The new law about liberalization of Turkish railway transportation is accepted by Turkish Parliament and approved by the President of Turkey in April 2013.[12] 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.[13] Turkish Ministry of Transportation has a plan of constructing 4,000 km (2,485 mi) conventional and 10,000 km (6,214 mi) high speed lines until 2023.[14] There are also some commuter rail projects like Marmaray and Başkentray.

Rail transport map of Turkey

The first completed section of the high-speed rail line between Ankara and Eskişehir was opened by the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 13 March 2009.[17]

As of May 2016, there are four high-speed routes (Istanbul-Ankara, Istanbul-Konya, Ankara-Eskisehir, Ankara-Konya) 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.[18] 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 (on the line from Ankara to Sivas) to Kayseri and another one from Halkalı to Edirne on Turkey's European border with Bulgaria.[15]

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.[19] 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 2019, 164.7 million passengers used the Turkish rail network.[1]

As of May 2016, there are several construction points (mainly for signalization or electrification) in Turkish rail network which is causing complete or partial closures.[20]

• Bulgaria – open – 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) – 25 kV, 50 Hz AC
• Greece – open – 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) – 25 kV, 50 Hz AC (but no trains running since February 2011 due to economic crisis in Greece)

• Georgia – open – break-of-gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)/1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) at Akhalkalaki (Georgia)
• Armenia – closed – break-of-gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)/1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) (see the Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway line)[21]
• Azerbaijan – no direct link – break-of-gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)/1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) via Georgia (see the Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway line), via Iran (toward Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic).
• Iran – via Lake Van train ferry – 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)

• Iraq – no direct link, traffic routed via Syria – 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
• Syria – closed because of the Syrian civil war – 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)

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 5 March 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.[22]

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.[23][note 3][22] In 2007 an agreement was made to create a rail link between the two countries.[24]

A new connection to the Caucasus region and Central Asia via Georgia and Azerbaijan is planned (see the Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway); the line will involve a break of gauge from 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) to 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in). 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.[25] This railway by-passes the Kars–Gyumri–Tbilisi railway line that connected Turkey to Armenia which was closed in 1993[26] during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War; in 2009 the possibility of re-opening the line was stated by the Armenian transport minister.[27]

Suburban systems in Turkey as listed below:

Six cities in Turkey have Metro/LRT system, listed as follows:

A further one more metro system is planned in Gaziantep.

There are also several tram systems in many cities, listed as follows:

In combination with its affiliates, the State Railways of the Republic of Turkey (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları, TCDD) have a monopoly on passenger[note 4] and freight rail transportation, as well as the manufacturing of rolling stock and tracks.[28] 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.[15]

Three affiliated companies of the TCDD produce rolling stock for the Turkish railway system:

• TÜLOMSAŞ (Türkiye Lokomotif ve Motor Sanayi A.Ş.) produces diesel and electric locomotives and related components; the company has produced locomotives under license from numerous companies over the years, including Krauss-Maffei, GM-EMD, Toshiba and Alstom.[29]
• TÜVASAŞ (Türkiye Vagon Sanayi A.Ş.) manufactures coaching stock as well as diesel hydraulic railcars,[30][31] and has a technology transfer agreement with Rotem of Korea to manufacture DMUs[32] as well as a joint venture with Rotem, EUROTEM, to outfit and test high-speed train sets and suburban trains.[33][34]
• TÜDEMSAŞ (Türkiye Demiryolu Makinaları Sanayii A.Ş.) produces and repairs freight wagons.[35]

All high-speed and main rail lines use standard-gauge railway with the exception of the Bursa and Istanbul nostalgic tramways, which use the metre-gauge railway.