page_title: High-speed rail in Europe
section_title: Turkey
hierarchical_section_title: High-speed rail in Europe / South-east / Turkey
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Eisenbahnkarte der Türkei English: Railway map of Turkey Français&#160;: Carte des chemins de fer de la Turquie
context_page_description: High-speed rail in Europe is emerging as an increasingly popular and efficient means of transport. The first high-speed rail lines in Europe, built in the 1980s and 1990s, improved travel times on intra-national corridors. Since then, several countries have built extensive high-speed networks, and there are now several cross-border high-speed rail links. Railway operators frequently run international services, and tracks are continuously being built and upgraded to international standards on the emerging European high-speed rail network.
  In 2007, a consortium of European railway operators, Railteam, emerged to co-ordinate and boost cross-border high-speed rail travel. Developing a Trans-European high-speed rail network is a stated goal of the European Union, and most cross-border railway lines receive EU funding. Several countries — France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia and the United Kingdom — are connected to a cross-border high-speed railway network.
context_section_description: Turkey started building high-speed rail lines in 2003 aiming a double-track high-speed rail network through the country allowing a maximum speed of 250 km/h. Only the planned line between İstanbul, Edirne and Kapıkule is situated in the European part of the country.
  The first line that was built aimed to connect İstanbul to Ankara (via Eskişehir) reducing the travel time from 6 – 7 hours to 3 hours 10 minutes. The Eskişehir-Ankara line started operating regular services on 14 March 2009 with a maximum speed of 250 km/h, being the first High Speed Rail Service in Turkey making the Turkish State Railways the 6th European national rail company to offer HSR services (although these are situated in the Asian part of the country). The Eskişehir-İstanbul line is still under construction and was due in 2015.
  The Ankara - Konya line construction began in 2006. The travel time is projected to be decreased to 70 minutes on this route. The construction of the Ankara - Kırıkkale - Yozgat - Sivas line began in February 2009. Several other HSR line projects between major cities such as Ankara - Afyon - Uşak - İzmir, İstanbul - Bursa, İstanbul - Edirne - Kapıkule (Bulgarian border) have reached their final design and are expected to pass to the contraction phase soon. Ankara - Kayseri and Eskişehir - Afyon - Antalya lines are planned to be built in the coming years. The Konya - Mersin - Adana and Sivas - Erzincan - Erzurum - Kars lines were mentioned by the prime minister and the minister of transport. The total length of constructed lines is claimed to be 4,600 km, with long-term plans to expand the network to 11,000 km.
  The first 12 high-speed trainsets are ordered from CAF company, Spain. Several new trainsets from Siemens were also bought for the Ankara-Konya line.
caption: Turkish HSR Network: High-speed rail lines in service, those under construction, and those in the planning stages
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