page_title: TCDD Taşımacılık
section_title: International rail
hierarchical_section_title: TCDD Taşımacılık / Passenger Operations / International rail
caption_attribution_description: English: The eastbound Istanbul-Sofia Express waiting to depart Sofia Central Station with a BDZ class 44 electric locomotive leading.
context_page_description: TCDD Taşımacılık A.Ş. is a government-owned railway company responsible for the operations of most passenger and freight rail in Turkey. The company was formed on 14 June 2016, splitting off from the Turkish State Railways to take over railway operations, while TCDD would continue to administer railway infrastructure. TCDD Taşımacılık officially began operations on 1 January 2017.
  TCDD Taşımacılık operates trains on a network of over 12,430 km within 59 of the 81 provinces in Turkey.
context_section_description: While TCDD used to operate several international trains to Europe and the Middle-East, most of these trains were cancelled due to the outbreak of war in Syria and Iraq, and the economic crisis in Greece. Currently, TCDD Taşımacılık operates two international trains from Istanbul to Sofia and Bucharest in Bulgaria and Romania respectively. These two routes operate out of Halkalı as a single train and later split in Bulgaria. Once the rehabilitation of the railway east of Halkalı is completed in late 2018, international train service will resume from their former terminus, Sirkeci station. An agreement between Greece and Turkey to revive the Istanbul to Thessaloniki train, cancelled in 2011, was signed in March 2016 but no progress has been made since and it is still unclear whether or not the train will resume service. 
  A new international passenger service from Kars to Baku, Azerbaijan, was expected to start June 2018 via the recently completed Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railway. A train such as this would be the first revenue passenger train service from Turkey to the Caucasus.
  Due to the volatile situation in Syria and Iraq, all international train service to the middle-east is suspended indefinitely.
caption: The Istanbul-Sofia Express waiting to depart Sofia.
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