Expansion of high-speed rail network boosts station construction

Turkey’s sprawling high-speed railway network will also boost train station construction across the country, as a total of 21 new stations are planned at routes through which trains pass.

With the opening of the high-speed railway line between Ankara and Istanbul – Turkey’s two most populous cities – the railways are hoped to emerge as favorable transportation alternatives, regaining a title they had lost to land road transportation dozens of years ago.  

As the number of passengers carried on high-speed railway lines is expected to skyrocket to 79 million by 2016, the government is planning to ramp up the number of stations that could meet this mounting demand.

At the first stage, stations at Ankara, Eskişehir, Bilecik, Bozöyük, Sapanca, Arifiye and Pamukova are planned to be renewed to meet initial demand.

In the upcoming period, new stations at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen airport and Söğütlüçeşme will be linked to the existing lines.

Turkey’s long-awaited high-speed railway line between the capital, Ankara, and the financial capital of Istanbul was inaugurated at a large ceremony on July 25.

Three lines at Ankara-Eskişehir, Ankara-Konya and Konya-Eskişehir are already operating. And with the completion of three more new routes between Bilecik-Bursa, Ankara-Sivas and Ankara-İzmir, a total of 11 provinces will be linked with each other through high-speed trains.

The station in Ankara, the construction of which is planned to be finished by 2016, comes particularly to the fore with its modernized design plan.

The city has been designated as the capital of high-speed railway networks, with around 30 million passengers expected to...