TURKEY: Plans to develop inter-city and suburban rail lines have been announced by the government ahead of municipal elections on March 31.
Speaking in the Black Sea port of Samsun on February 28, Minister of Transport & Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said the government would push ahead with a planned Kirikkale – Çorum – Amasya – Samsun high speed line which would reduce the Ankara - Samsun journey time from 7 h by road to 2 h 45 min by rail.
Plans to build the 292 km line in three stages were completed in 2020 and an environmental impact assessment approved.
The first 100 km between Kirikkale Delice and Çorum has been included in Turkey’s investment budget since 2022.
According to the current 2024, budget the project would cost TL46·48bn, of which TL38·41bn is expected to be met by foreign credit.
No engineering design or construction tenders have been called so far, and the project has a nominal TL1 000/year allocated as a way of keeping it active on the books pending the availability of funding.
Uraloğlu did not say when he expected funding to be disbursed and construction to start, or when he expected the Çorum – Amasra section to be included in the investment budget.
The 101 km Amasra – Samsun conventional line has already been modernised as part of the rebuilding of the Sivas – Samsun line. This route began carrying freight trains in May 2020 and passenger traffic in April 2023, but it would need to be upgraded further to carry high speed passenger services.
Uraloğlu also said that this year would see work start on the preparation of a project for the development of a 509 km coastal railway linking Samsun with the east Black Sea cities of Ordu, Trabzon and Rize and the Sarp border crossing with Georgia, 20 km from the terminus of Georgia’s main east-west rail corridor at Batumi.
On March 1 Uraloğlu announced that national operator TCDD Taşımcılık is to start offering sleeping and dining cars on services to Tatvan and Diyarbakir aimed at encouraging tourist traffic.
Logistics centres
Visiting Izmir’s under-construction Kemalpaşa intermodal logistics centre on February 29, Uraloğlu said that the facility has an operational area of 1·3 km2 which can be expanded to 3 km2 as local demand increases from an anticipated 2·3 million TEU in 2025 to 5 million TEU by the 2040s.
Construction work on three more ‘logistics villages’ at Sivas, Boğazköprü-Kayseri and İyidere-Rize is continuing, he said, with planning and survey work for seven more under way.
Konya suburban line
Speaking in Konya on February 27, Uraloğlu announced that his ministry would expand the scope of the Konyaray suburban rail scheme from the 26 km corridor currently planned to 46 km.
Work on the first 17·4 km connecting the airport to the main high speed rail station began last July and is expected to be completed in 2025. Stage two will see the line extended by 8·6 km to Organized Industrial Zone and Yaylapınar.
Uraloğlu said the additional 20 km would be added via a third phase, but did not give further details.
