Ferry line between Istanbul's Çubuklu and İstinye begins service

The Istanbul Municipality began its first ferry line service between İstinye on the city's European side and Çubuklu on the Asian side on March 21, in a bid to ease commuting time, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

The line is expected to ease vehicle traffic on the bridges over Istanbul's Bosphorus by running eight-minute long services between the two continents. The lines will initially be on service for a test process, with only two ferries running on the line. 

Municipality officials said they planned to serve approximately 2 million vehicles and 2.5 million passengers annually.  

The line will run services between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. throughout the week. 

The two ferries, "Aşiyan" and "Erguvan," have been designed resilient to strong and harsh waves coming from the Black Sea. 

"Aşiyan" has the capacity of 65 vehicles and 250 passengers, while "Erguvan" has the capacity of 65 vehicles and 434 passengers. 

With the new line, the municipality said they planned to remove 5,000 vehicles from Istanbul's bridges, adding they aimed to reduce carbon emission and cut down on fuel consumption.