Turkish State Railways

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Logo of the Turkish State Railways, TCDD

Turkish Republic State Railways (TCDD, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları) is the state corporation that operates the public railway system in Turkey. The organization was founded in 1927 to take over the operation of railways that were left within the borders of the Turkish Republic after the dissolution of Ottoman Empire, which up until then had been run and financed by private corporations.

Today the TCDD operates over 8500 kilometres of railway lines.

International connections

Passenger trains

Direction Europe

TCDD is member of Inter Rail and is listed in zone G with Greece, Italy and Slovenia

1 An agreement has been signed between TCDD and OSE (ΟΣΕ), the Greek Train Administration Company between the 14th and 15th June 2005 which will allow the direct movement of a Train to Thessaloniki from Istanbul and vice-versa. It is planned to set up a train until 15 July 2005.

Direction Middle-East

  • The Trans Asia Train (Istanbul - Tehran)
  • Van - Tabriz
  • with The Toros Express (Istanbul - Gaziantep - Syria)
  • Gaziantep - Baghdad (Currently not working)

Projects Under Construction

Marmaray Project

For more details on this topic, see Marmaray.

This Project is a shared rail underground tunnel system which will connect the rail lines in the European and Asian sides of Istanbul under the strait of Istanbul, Bosporus which actually connects the European rail networks to the Middle Eastern and Asian rail networks. In addition to this, the tunnel is also projected to form an east-west rail system line for the massively populated Istanbul metropolitan area and decrease the public transportation problem while increasing the percentage of the use of rail systems in public transportation from 3,6% to 27,7% putting Istanbul third in the world ranking after Tokyo (60%) and New York (31%).

Turkish State Railways network - High speed tracks under construction and in plan
TCDD High Speed Train Set

High-Speed Rail Projects

Istanbul - Ankara High-Speed Track

The Railway will lead from Ankara via Eskişehir to Istanbul. With this project a trip from Istanbul to Ankara will take about 3 hours and 10 minutes at the maximum speed of 250 km/h. The trains will consist of the Spanish CAF trains.

Ankara - Konya High-Speed Track

The new railway, that will dramatically shorten the travel time between Ankara and Konya to 70 minutes, will connect to the Istanbul-Ankara Line in Polatli. The same set of CAF trains will be used on this line.

Further High-Speed Rail Projects

For more details on this topic, see High-speed rail in Turkey.

History

Ottoman railways

The history of Turkish Railways dates back to 1856. The first railway line in Turkey was the 130 km İzmir - Aydın line, on which a British Company was appointed. The choice of this particular spot was not random. The İzmir - Aydın track was built because of its high commercial potential. Another reason was that this particular area had raw materials that were necessary for British industry. Also this area was important for controlling the Middle East, and at that time of the Ottoman Empire after the English were given the first license, France and Germany began to build up different areas where they exercised their power. Those countries tried to deliver the goods that were necessary for their industries, that they bought from the Ottoman Empire, as fast as possible to the seaports. The railways were built to be as efficient as possible, and were strategically placed, for example being within around 20 km of mines, etc. So the railways were actually placed according to the politics of those foreign countries.

Between the years 1856 - 1922 the following tracks were built in the realm of the Ottoman Empire:

Total 9,919 km

In this case after the Republic was declared in Turkey, only 4000 km of the railway tracks that were built by foreign companies were left within the national borders. To be more precise, the young Turkish Republic inherited from the Ottoman Empire 2,282 km normal tracks and 70 km narrow tracks owned by foreign companies and 1,378 km normal tracks owned and operated by the former Ottoman Empire.

After the Republic

1923 - 1950: The railway period

Before the Republic was announced the railway tracks were build for the benefit of the foreign countries, but after the formation of the Republic in Turkey the railway tracks were built for the good of the Republic. This can be clearly seen of the industralization plans released between 1932 and 1936 which were based on iron and coal etc. The cheapest and most efficient way to transport those goods was to build railways. In those years the financial assets of transportation were transferred to railways.

In those years of shortage, the construction of railways continued on high-speed. During the Second World War the constructions slowed down. 3,578 km of the tracks that were build between 1923 and 1950, 3,208 km were completed before 1940.

At those times the railways were included in the National Economy procedures. The aim of constructing railways were stated as:

  • To connect potential production centers with the natural resources.
  • To connect production and consumer centers especially with seaports, and fascilitate communications with rural areas.
  • To connect commercially undeveloped areas, in order to speed up economic progress across the country. Through this policy 1927 Kayseri, 1930 Sivas, 1931 Malatya, 1933 Niğde, 1934 Elazığ, 1935 Diyarbakır and 1939 Erzurum were connected to the railway network.
  • To enhance national security, therefore creating a comprehensive communication network within the country with railways.

To reach those targets the railway politics were lead in two stages:

  1. Despite the financial problems, the railways that were owned by foreign companies were bought and nationalized, a part of it was transferred with agreements.
  2. Since most of the railways were concentrated in the West of Turkey, the aim was to connect the central and Eastern areas with trade centres and coasts. At this period the newly built main routes were: Ankara - Kayseri - Sivas, Sivas - Erzurum (the Caucasus route), Samsun - Kalin (the Sivas route), Irmak - Filyos (the Zonguldak coal route), Adana - Fevzipaşa - Diyarbakır (the copper route), Sivas - Çetinkaya (the iron route). Before the Republic 70% of the routes were to the west of Ankara - Konya, after the Republic 78.6% were constructed in the east so that a balance of 46% to 54% was reached.

Between 1935 and 1945 the railways were joined. Those joinings created cycles in the railways which for example shortened the distance between Ankara - Diyarbakır from 1,324 km to 1,116 km.

In those times the road system was designed to aid the railways.

1950 and after: the Golden Road period

The road system that was left from the Ottoman Empire, consisted of 13,885 km ruined surface roads, and 4.450 km stabilized roads, which totaled 18,335 km and 94 bridges.

The road systems was seen until 1950 as a system to aid the railways. But instead of strengthening the rail network, the automobile roads were extended because of the Marshall plan.

After 1960 even though there were many targets that aimed at the extension of the railroads, most of the financial assets were transferred into automobile roads. Because of these politics, between the years 1950 and 1980 an average of 30 km of railroads were constructed.

In the mid 1980s in Turkey a mobilization was started to build Autobahns, the Autobahns project was the third largest project after the GAP and Tourism projects. Because of those projects, until the mid 1990's about US$2,000,000,000 were invested. In these years no investments were made to railroads, and no projects were initiated. Most of the railways (most of them more than 50 years old) were left to their own fate.

In Turkey goods are carried 94% on roads, only 4% are carried on railroads. The share of goods transportation in Turkey by trains deceased in 50 years by 60%.

Railroad construction chronology

Tracks constructed before the Republic

Still in use

Route Opening Length (m)
İzmir-Aydın Railroad
Şirinyer - Buca 1860 2,452
İzmir - Sütlaç
 1861
 356,505
Torbalı - Tire 1883 47,541
Gaziemir - Seydiköy 1886 1,088
Alaşehir - Uşak 1887 117,810
Çatal - Ödemiş (Şehir) 1888 26,452
Goncalı - Denizli 1889 9,430
Sütlaç - Çivril 1889 30,224
Ortaklar - Söke 1890 22,012
Sütlaç - Eğirdir 1912 113,795
İzmir-Turgutlu Railroad
Basmane - Menemen
 1865
 31,680
Halkapınar - Bornova 1865 4,878
Menemen - Manisa - Turgutlu 1865 61,500
Turgutlu - Alaşehir 1875 75,790
Uşak - Afyon 1890 134,946
Manisa - Kırkağaç 1890 80,853
Kırkağaç – Bandırma 1912 195,244
Eastern Railroad
Sirkeci - Yenikapı
 1872
 4,756
Yenikapı - Florya 1871 16,372
Florya - Hadımköy 1872 30,325
Hadımköy - Çatalca 1873 19,610
Çatalca - Hudut 1873 209,899
Karaağaç - Hudut 1873 7,137
Mandıra - Kırklareli 1912 45,594
Anatolia Railroad
Haydarpaşa - Feneryolu
 1872
 5,088
Feneryolu - Pendik 1872 21,162
Pendik - Gebze 1873 19,681
Gebze - İzmit 1873 47,096
İzmit - Büyükderbent 1890 18,312
Büyükderbent - Mekece 1891 71,709
Mekece-Vezirhan 1891 32,831
Vezirhan - İnönü 1892 65,980
İnönü - Ağapınar 1892 55,823
Ağapınar - Yalınlı 1892 54,954
Yalınlı - Sazılar 1892 61,902
Sazılar - Beylikköprü 1892 14,317
Beylikköprü - Ankara 1892 109,516
Eskişehir - Kütahya 1894 76,984
Alayunt - Çöğürler 1895 19,631
Çöğürler - Afyon 1895 74,615
Afyon - Akşehir 1895 98,128
Akşehir - Ilgın 1896 57,641
Ilgın - Konya 1896 116,796
Arifiye - Adapazarı 1899 8,491
Baghdad Railroad
Konya - Bulgurlu
 1904
 198,892
Bulgurlu - Ulukışla 1911 38,733
Ulukışla - Durak 1912 90,469
Durak - Yenice 1912 17,915
Southern Railroad
Fevzipaşa - Meydanıekbez
 1912
 35,411
Border - Çobanköy - Nusaybin 1917 382,106
Derbesiye - Mardin 1917 24,340
Toprakkale - İskenderun 1912 59,220
Mersin-Tarsus-Adana Railroad
Mersin - Yenice 1882 43,209
Yenice - Adana (City) 1886 23,949
Sarıkamış-Kars-Border Railroad
Sarıkamış - Kars - Border
(broad line, can be converted to normal line)		 1913
Before the Republic Main Routes 3,714,280
Before the Republic Secondary Routes 844,995
Before the Republic Total 4,558,995


Disassembled narrow tracks

Track Length (m)
Mudanya – Bursa 41,110
Ilıca - Palamutluk 28,391
Samsun - Çarşamba 39,465
Maden - Sarıkamış 231,940
Total 340,906


See also

External links


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