Rail transport in Turkey. Turkey has a 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 (TCDD) (Turkish State Railways) 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 (UIC). The UIC Country Code for Turkey is 75.

History

Network

In 2022, Turkey had  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. The Turkish rail network does not cover all major cities; its fourth and fifth largest metropolitan areas of Bursa and Antalya respectively remain unconnected to the network, although plans exist for high-speed rail lines to reach them.

As of June 2016, there is  of conventional railway line and  of high-speed railway line.  of the network is electrified (31%), and  of it is signaled (37%). 

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 (standards) about the Turkish railway system:
 Rail Gauge – 
 Electrification – 25 kV, 50 Hz AC Overhead lines
 Loading gauge – UIC GC
 Traffic – Right-Hand traffic
 Pantograph –  (Old) and  (New, Rebuilt and High-speed lines)
 Rail – S49 (Old) and UIC 60 (New, Rebuilt and High-speed lines)
 Sleepers – Wooden & Steel (Old) and Concrete (New, Rebuilt and High-speed lines)
 Fastening – Baseplate based with Screw spikes (Old) and Tension Clamp (New, Rebuilt and High-speed lines)
 Platform height –  (Low platforms),  (High-speed trains' platforms) and  (Commuter rail platforms)
 Coupling – Buffers and Chains (Locomotives and Passenger cars) and Scharfenberg (MUs)
 Brake – Air
 Curve minimum –  and  (High-speed lines)

High-speed rail lines

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.

As of August 2024, there are eight high-speed routes (Istanbul-Ankara, Istanbul-Konya, Istanbul-Karaman, Istanbul-Sivas Ankara-Eskisehir, Ankara-Konya, Ankara-Karaman, Ankara-Sivas) running on three different high-speed railway lines. Bursa,  Izmir and Edirne 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 Polatlı to İzmir via Afyon is under construction along with some other lines 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.

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 2019, 164.7 million passengers used the Turkish rail network.

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.

Railway links with adjacent countries

West neighboring countries
  Bulgaria – open  –  – 25 kV, 50 Hz AC
  Greece – open  –  – 25 kV, 50 Hz AC (but no trains running since February 2011 due to economic crisis in Greece)

East neighboring countries
  Georgia – open – break-of-gauge / at Akhalkalaki (Georgia)
  Armenia – closed – break-of-gauge / (see the Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway line)
  Azerbaijan – no direct link – break-of-gauge / via Georgia (see the Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway line), via Iran (toward Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic).
  Iran – via Lake Van train ferry –

South neighboring countries
  Iraq – no direct link, traffic routed via Syria – 
  Syria – closed because of the Syrian civil war – 

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.

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 (see the Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway); 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 First Nagorno-Karabakh War; in 2009 the possibility of re-opening the line was stated by the Armenian transport minister.

Urban rail

Commuter
Suburban systems in Turkey as listed below:

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

A further one more metro system is planned in Gaziantep.

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

Nostalgic tramway

Companies

Turkish State Railways

In combination with its affiliates, the State Railways of the Republic of Turkey (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları, TCDD) 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: 
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.
TÜVASAŞ (Türkiye Vagon Sanayi A.Ş.) manufactures coaching stock as well as diesel hydraulic railcars, and has a technology transfer agreement with Rotem of Korea to manufacture DMUs as well as a joint venture with Rotem, EUROTEM, to outfit and test high-speed train sets and suburban trains.
TÜDEMSAŞ (Türkiye Demiryolu Makinaları Sanayii A.Ş.) produces and repairs freight wagons.

Statistical information
As of 2021, there were  of main railway lines in Turkey, of which 14% are double-track and 51% are electrified.

In 2008, 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 (~19%) and steel (~12%). Over 700 tunnels exist, with a total length of 181 km; the majority (~76%) are under 1 km long and only one of them has a length of over 4 km. 1,316 steel bridges (average length 22 m) and over 10,000 concrete bridges (average length 2.9 m) exist, the majority (99%) are suitable for axle loads over 20 t, with 40% allowing axle loads of 22.5 tonnes.

Also 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 (830 of which were in working order.) Over 17,000 wagons of various types make up the rest of the fleet.

Rail gauge in Turkey
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.

Proposed lines 

 Kars to Nakhchivan in Azerbaijan

See also

Çamlık Railway Museum
TCDD Open Air Steam Locomotive Museum
Istanbul Railway Museum
Rahmi M. Koç Museum

References and notes

Notes

References

External links