TURKEY: A ‘light rail’ line on the alignment of the former railway to the historic Sirkeci station on the European side of Istanbul was opened by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan February 26.
The Halkalı – Sirkeci section of line closed in August 2013 as part of the development of the cross-Bosporus Marmaray suburban rail corridor. Marmaray trains use the old main line from their western terminus at Halkalı as far as Kazilçeşme and then a new underground alignment to Sirkeci. Long-distance trains were cut back to start and terminate at Halkalı at the same time.
The new line uses the 8·3 km Kazlıçeşme – Sirkeci section of the old railway, with a mix of single and double track.
The reconstruction was undertaken by Kolin Insaat under a TL480m contract awarded in 2021. It involved the rebuilding or renewal of 21 road and pedestrian underpasses and the construction of one new pedestrian underpass and three overpasses. There are running and bicycle routes parallel to the line.
The former suburban line stations at Sirkeci, Cankurturan, Kumkapı, Yenikapı, Cerrahpaşa, Kocamustafapaşa and Yedikule have been modernised, and a new station at built at Kazlıçeşme.
There are various interchanges with Marmaray, tram and ferry routes.
Services are being operated using Maramaray Hyundai Rotem Class E32000 electric multiple-units, running every 10 min at a maximum speed of 80 km/h.
Despite the use of EMUs, the line is numbered as tramway T6.
The project was developed by the national Ministry of Transport & Infrastructure rather than Istanbul municipality, and as such uses the U for Ulaşım (transport) logo as opposed to the M used for the city’s metro.
Speaking at the opening, Erdoğan said the route was one of the oldest railways in the country. It had ‘completed its service with the opening of Marmaray’, but the reopening would ‘bring it back with a brand new design’ in an ‘environmentally friendly project focused on both railways and pedestrians for the benefit of our Istanbulite brothers and sisters’.
