High speed rail in Turkey

Engineering

All high-speed railways being contructed in Turkey are double tracked, electrified, without level crossing, having ETCS signalization and meeting ATS, ERTMS, ATMS, SICAS and ATP standards.

Ankara–İstanbul high-speed line

Prior to the introduction of the high-speed line, the population centres of İstanbul (14 million) and Ankara (5 million) were connected by a 576 km long railway line, of which only 110 km was double tracked. The whole line was electrified, but low radius turns and poor track quality made high-speed rail transport impossible. Prior to the upgrading of this line in 2006, the railway's market share of Istanbul–Ankara passenger transit was 10%, with a travel time of ~6.5 hours.

In 1994, an initial plan to upgrade the existing line was launched, named the "Ankara–İstanbul Railway Line Rehabilitation Project." Smoothing of curves to allow running at around 100 km/h, and some track doubling were planned. The design specifications were not expected to meet future needs and no progress was made until 1999, when funding was obtained for a line between Esenkent and Eskişehir, to be operated at 200 km/h. Subsequently, this developed into the high speed line project with the expected line speed raised to 250 km/h. Contracts for this line were signed in 2000.

The development of the 1994 "railway rehabilitation project" forms the first section of the Ankara–İstanbul high-speed line, and is expected to reduce in half the travelling time between the two cities, with hopes to capture a far greater share (78%) of the passenger transportation market between the two cities.

The China Railway Construction Corporation and the China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation won the bid in 2005 to build the railway line in partnership with two Turkish companies, Cengiz Construction and İbrahim Cecen Ictas Construction.

The Ankara–Istanbul HST line opened on 25 July 2014, although with all trains terminating at Pendik, which is 1 hour by bus from Kadikoy in the eastern suburbs of Istanbul. There are 12 trips per day and the journey takes 3.5 hours. All trains stop at Eskişehir and İzmit. High-speed trains were originally expected to start running through the Bosphorus tunnel to the European side of Istanbul in 2015 via Marmaray, but the work has been delayed and this is now likely to take at least until 2018.

Design and construction

The first high-speed railroad to be built in Turkey will connect the county's largest conurbations of Ankara and İstanbul via Eskişehir, with a junction at Polatlı to the Ankara-Konya high-speed line.

The line is 533 km long, double tracked, electrified, and signalled, to ETCS level 1 standard and is independent of the original Ankara to Istanbul line. The design speed is 250 km/h.

The first part of the line to be constructed (Phase 1) was the Ankara–Eskişehir section, specifically between Sincan and İnönü, scheduled to open in 2006.

The second phase was scheduled to open in 2008 and included more difficult terrain which covers the path between İnönü and Köseköy, extending to Gebze close to Istanbul. The service in this line is expected to start on 25 July 2014. A part of the route has not been completed yet by the time of opening, so conventional line will be used until the completion of the project.

Operation and rolling stock

The Ankara to Eskişehir section officially opened on 13 March 2009.

The line is operated by the Turkish State Railways, using the TCDD HT65000 six-car train sets constructed by the Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) of Spain.

On 13 November 2009, a high-speed train derailed near Eskişehir.

On 25 July 2014, Istanbul–Ankara high-speed train service started. The stretch has not completed yet, thus service is partially using conventional line, which causes a little longer trip than the target. 6 trains depart every day in both directions. Final station in İstanbul is temporarily Pendik, a district in east of İstanbul. Several public-transport connections are organized to access the HST trains.

In addition to 11 sets of CAF used in Ankara–Eskişehir and Ankara–Konya routes, TCDD had bought seven Siemens Velaro sets for the Ankara–İstanbul line, planned to be open by the end of 2013.

TCDD is also planning to open a new tender for 106 new sets to be supplied in 5 years and used in new-added lines.

Ankara–Konya high-speed line

The second high-speed line construction project in Turkey was a line from Polatlı on the Ankara to İstanbul line to Konya.

Prior to the construction of the line, journeys between Ankara and Konya took over 10 hours, travelling from Ankara via Eskişehir and Afyon, with a total length of nearly 1000 km. The new high-speed line is 306 km in length, with a journey time of 1 hour and 15 minutes. 212 km of new track is constructed via Polatlı and Konya, with a design permitting up to 350 km/h of high-speed rail transport. ETCS Level 2 will be used.

Construction was split into two phases: Phase 1 was the 100 km section and Phase 2 was the 112 km section between Polatlı and Konya.

The line includes a tunnel of 2030m. The first test train ran in December 2010; Revenue services began on 24 August 2011. Currently, same CAF trains which are used on Ankara–Eskisehir line are running on this line with 250 km/h maximum speed. In the future, TCDD will procure 6 more sets with up to 350 km/h. The journey time between the two cities (Ankara–Konya) is 1 and a half hours, dropping to 1 hour and 15 minutes in the future. Previously the journey time was 10 hours and 30 minutes. There will be 10 trains a day, though this will rise to one per hour in the future.

Lines under construction and planning phase

Ankara–Sivas high-speed line : More than half of the budgeted investment has been done by 2014, and is planned to be completed by 2023.

Ankara–İzmir high-speed line : The project has recently started, and is planned to be completed by 2025.

Ankara–Bursa high-speed line : One third of the budgeted investment has been done, and is planned to be completed by 2023.

For high-speed trains, TCDD has a budget of more than 1 billion TL for 2014.

According to official (budgeted) and unofficial (announced) plans, 45 of 81 cities will be connected by high speed services in the long term.

Ankara–Sivas line

Prior to the construction of the high-speed line, the railway line length between Ankara and Sivas was 602 km, primarily single-tracked, with a travel time of 12 hours. New travel time will be 2 hours and 51 minutes The new high-speed line will be double-tracked and have a length of 466 km eastwards from Ankara to Sivas via Kırıkkale, Yerköy and Yozgat and constructed for the most part to the same 250 km/h operational design as the previous lines. The infrastructure includes 6 viaducts (with a total length over 3 km), 11 tunnels (including one of ~3 km in length), and 67 bridges.

The route study was completed by the end of 2006, and put up for tender in two parts; separated at the 174 km mark from Ankara at Yerköy.

Sivas–Kars line

An extension eastwards to Kars from the Ankara – Sivas line is planned (a feasibility study having been started in 2006), passing through Erzincan and Erzurum. The line is expected to be built in three phases. It will be electrified and double-tracked based on the 250 km/h standard.

Sivas–Erzincan line construction will start in 2018.

Ankara–İzmir high-speed line

Plans for a high-speed line from İzmir to Ankara have been approved. The line will pass through Afyon to meet the high-speed line from Ankara to Istanbul near Polatlı. It will have a length of 624 km, with a projected running speed of 250 km/h The travel will take 3 hours and 30 minutes.

The line is scheduled to be finished and operational by 2025.

The construction of line is planned in three phases:

Bursa–Bozüyük high-speed line

A 75 km line between Bursa and Bozüyük is planned to connect with the Ankara–Istanbul high-speed line; contracts were awarded in 2011 and construction is expected to start in 2012. The line is expected to open in 2023, and would be capable of 250 km/h operation.

Antalya–Konya–Kayseri high-speed line

This line is planned as a section of the Ankara–Antalya high-speed line. The line will used for Ankara–Antalya high-speed line.

İstanbul–Edirne–Kapıkule–Svilengrad (Bulgaria) high-speed line

The Ankara to Istanbul high-speed line is to be extended 230 km from Halkalı (a western suburb of Istanbul) all the way to Turkey's borders with Bulgaria and Greece at the vicinity of Kapıkule in the Edirne Province. Travel times will be reduced from 5 hours to 1 hour.

Ankara–Kayseri high-speed line

Kayseri–Yerköy line – branching from the Ankara–Sivas high-speed line.

Future extension plans

Other projected high-speed rail lines include:

TREVI ETR 500 test trains

The first high-speed trains to run on Turkish rails were two ETR 500 train sets rented from Trenitalia of Italy and were used for testing the completed part of the high-speed railway network, between Eskişehir and Ankara, on 23 April 2007. During the tests, ETR 500 Y2 achieved the current rail speed record in Turkey, reaching 303 km/h.

CAF TCDD HT65000

The Turkish State Railways agreed with Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF), a Spanish rail car building company, to design a high-speed train set in 2006. CAF introduced the HT65000 EMU sets, similar to the RENFE Class 120 / 121 EMUs. The HT65000 is a 6 car EMU set using 25 kV AC electrical system via a pantograph. These sets have an acceleration of 0.48 m/s² and the power output is 4,800 kW. One train set has a capacity of 411 passengers, as 365 passengers in Economy class and 55 passengers in business class (or 1st class).TCDD ordered 10 sets of HT65000 EMUs. The first set left Spain on November 10, 2007 and arrived in Turkey at Kapıkule on November 20, 2007. Then 4 more sets came to Turkey in 2008, 3 more in 2009 and 2 more in 2010.

Siemens Velaro TR

The Velaro TR (TCDD HT80000) is a Velaro D derived 8-car standard gauge high-speed train for the Turkish State Railways (TCDD). The eight cars, totalling a length of 200 m, can accommodate 519 passengers and reach a top speed of 300 km/h. 25 kV 50 Hz AC power the train with a total of 8 MW.

Turkish State Railways (TCDD) placed an order for seven Velaro high-speed trainsets in July 2013. The contract is worth €285M, including seven years of maintenance. The Velaros are to be deployed on the Turkish high-speed railway network. The first Siemens Velaro TR entered service in 2014.

On 18 February 2015, TCDD ordered another 10 Velaro TR for delivery in 2017. The €400M contract include the first three years of maintenance and spareparts.

Unlike the traditional white – red – dark blue color scheme used on the TCDD HT65000 high-speed trains, a white – turquoise – grey color scheme has been selected for the livery of TCDD's Velaro TR trains.

EUROTEM

EUROTEM, alternatively Hyundai EURotem, is a joint enterprise between Hyundai Rotem of South Korea and TÜVASAŞ of Turkey which was established in 2006 and started production in December 2007. The Hyundai EURotem factory in Adapazarı, Turkey, was built as the Hızlı Tren Fabrikası (High-Speed Train Factory) with the purpose of manufacturing the next generation of Turkey's high-speed train sets.

Ridership

Ridership has grown at the expense of TCDD's regular train services and has not dented air traffic demand. Total TCDD services incl. HSR remain flat.

Related infrastructure projects

The Marmaray project, which consists of a rail transport network around Istanbul and the world's deepest immersed tube railway tunnel under the Bosphorus strait, is also under construction. The Marmaray tunnel will connect the railway lines on the European and Asian parts of Istanbul and Turkey. In 2013 the Marmaray tunnel was opened and passenger transportation is started partially in 13.5 km of total 76.5 km. The rest was expected to be completed by 2015, but it now looks like this will not happen until some time in 2016. The project connecting the European and Asian suburban railway lines, will also connect the Thracian and Anatolian high-speed railway lines in Turkey via the world's deepest immersed-tube railway tunnel across the Bosphorus strait.

A new high-speed rail terminus station is to be built in Ankara (2009–2010), which is to be funded as a public–private partnership, using the Build-Operate-Transfer model. Additionally, new stations are to be constructed in İstanbul, Izmir, Edirne, Trabzon, Erzurum, Erzincan, Sivas, Kayseri, Antalya, Afyon and Polatlı. Furthermore, an additional project called Başkentray is also underway which consist of the renewal of railways in the urban section of Ankara.