Turkey is every day more focused on railway high-speed transport. The country’s first high-speed projects were launched in 2003, while for 2013 the authorities estimate a 1,500-km network and a 10,000 km of high-speed lines and 4,000 km of conventional lines for 2023 with investments amounting to USD 45 Billion.
To promote railway transport, the Turkish Ministry of Transport has attempted to stimulate the railway sector by prioritizing the construction of new lines and the acquisition of high-speed trains, increasing traffic speed on existing lines and rehabilitating the infrastructure. A part of the existing infrastructure will be modernised and equipped with the ERTMS, electronic interlocking, while tunnels and bridges will be rehabilitated and equipped with the latest technological systems, as Turkey begins to focus its railway system on railways. Ankara-Konya line is still part of the railway high-speed transport expansion programme and the government has committed to support high-speed transport by granting a higher percent of investments compared to the other means of transport.
Designed for speeds exceeding 300 km/h, Ankara-Konya line will significan-tly reduce the travel time from 10 hours to 1h30m, with 10 trains operated on the route. The number of trains is expected to increase in the future to 1 train per hour. This is very encouraging for the transport of passengers for whom the time and comfort are the main factors which convince them to choose rail transport over roads.
“The high-speed transport market in Turkey is very prosperous. Ankara-Konya line project has made us face challenges. First of all, I will have to say that we have been confronted with a specific work method and resource management policy, different from our own licensing experience. In Turkey, we have worked with different methods than those used in Italy, but, as far as we are concerned, this is a good thing because we are able to check our system using different situations and me-thods”, declared Luca Rimassa, Trackside Manager, Italcertifer, the company which has dealt with the implementation of the line project.
For tests, trains run over 100,000 km at speeds of 275 km/h and, according to estimates, the line will carry 3 million passengers.
“We want people to choose trains. We will have high-speed trains in 40 provinces. We don’t complain because the government is supporting our projects”, said TCDD Director Süleyman Karaman. According to him, there are projects for the development of at least 8 high-speed lines: Ankara-İzmir, Ankara-Sivas, Ankara-Bursa, Sivas-Erzincan, Erzincan-Trabzon, Sivas-Malatya, Elazığ-Diyarbakır, Eskişehir-Antalya and Konya-Antalya. In order to finish the high-speed train projects planned for 2016, the TCDD needs USD 14 Billion.
Currently, the authorities are initiating studies for the implementation of the high-speed line projects on the following routes: Ankara-Izmir (594 km), Bursa-Osmaneli (106 km), Istanbul-Edirne (230 km) and Ankara (Yerköy)-Kayseri (150 km).
However, in order to finalize these projects and for improving the existing railway network, TCDD needs USD 45 Billion for the construction of 10,000 km of high-speed line, 4,000 km of conventional lines by 2023.
Nevertheless, the biggest challenge for the railway system in Turkey is the Marmaray project, currently under implementation, the opening of the tunnel underneath the Bosporus Strait being scheduled for 2013. The project includes the construction of a 1,387-m submerged tunnel of the total 13.5-km of tunnel to be built.
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