Turkish State Railways
The Turkish State Railways, abbreviated as TCDD, is a government-owned national railway company responsible for the ownership and maintenance of railways in Turkey, as well as the planning and construction of new lines. TCDD was formed on 4 June 1929 as part of the nationalisation of railways in Turkey.
The Turkish State Railways owns and maintains all public railways in Turkey. This includes railway stations, ports, bridges and tunnels, yards and maintenance facilities. In 2016, TCDD controlled an active network of of railways, making it the 22nd-largest railway system in the world. Apart from railway infrastructure, TCDD also owns several rail transport companies within Turkey as well as a 50% share of the İzmir-area commuter rail system, İZBAN.
Prior to 2017, TCDD also operated all railways in Turkey. However, with the government taking steps to privatise some of the Turkish railway network, rolling stock and operations were handed over to TCDD Transport and TCDD formally ceased all railway operations on 31 December 2016.
History
Formerly planned railways
In 1948, the State Railways released a plan of railway lines that were to be constructed to "ensure national progression and safety". The plan included of new railway lines of which only were actually completed; the Gaziantep-Karkamış section of the Narlı-Nusaybin railway was completed in 1960.Operations
Turkish State Railways operated most trains in the country until the end of 2016. Intercity, regional, suburban, freight and most industrial lines are owned and operated by the State Railways. The only other railways in Turkey include İZBAN which operates commuter rail service around İzmir and a few other industrial railways. In addition to rail services, TCDD has been responsible since 1927 for operating several major ports, which handle 30% of Turkish port activities.Passenger operations
The Turkish State Railways operated passenger services on 90% of their system. These are intercity, regional, commuter and international services. In the railway's first year 52% of passenger travel in Turkey was by rail, despite the system lacking connections to many parts of the country. Rail transport was the main mode of transport for passengers in the following two decades, reaching an all-time high of 57% of passenger transport in 1947, but then started to decline after 1950, due to the mass construction of roads. Today, the passenger ratio is slowly increasing with the opening of high-speed rail lines in Turkey.In 2019, almost 150 million people traveled by train in Turkey. 17.5 million on main lines, 8.3 million on high-speed lines and 124 million used the Marmaray commuter railway. The share of railway in domestic travels in 2013 is about 2.2%.
The types of passenger service are:
- High-speed : High-speed rail services and TCDD's premier service.
- Mainline : Intercity trains operating between major cities.
- International : Trains operating on international routes, toward Europe or the Middle East.
- Regional : Trains operating within their respective districts.
- Commuter : Commuter trains, currently operating in Ankara and Istanbul.
High-speed services
YHT currently operates on two main lines: the Ankara–Istanbul high-speed railway, and Ankara–Konya high-speed railway. In total, these lines connect 8 provincial capitals out of 81 Provinces in Turkey, namely Adapazarı, Ankara, Bilecik, Eskişehir, Istanbul, İzmit, Karaman and Konya. There are currently ongoing construction projects aiming to link up at least 6 more provincial capitals, including third and fourth largest cities of the country İzmir and Bursa, besides Afyonkarahisar, Edirne, Kayseri, Sivas and other potential cities. Further ambitions at the planning stage eventually aim to link up East and West points of the country through high-speed railways and act as an international High-speed railway bridge across Europe and Asia
File:Eskisehir Station.jpg|thumb|A TCDD HT65000 in Eskişehir
On 13 March 2009, the first phase of the Ankara–Istanbul high-speed railway entered service between Ankara and Eskişehir. On 25 July 2014, the Ankara-Istanbul high-speed line services began to reach the Pendik railway station on the Asian side of Istanbul, and on 13 March 2019 the services began to reach the Halkalı railway station on the European side of Istanbul, passing through the Marmaray railway tunnel under the Bosphorus strait. There were initially 6 daily departures in both directions.
On 23 August 2011, the YHT service on the Ankara–Konya high-speed railway was inaugurated. The Konya-Ankara line was later connected with the Istanbul–Ankara line at the Polatlı district of Ankara Province on 23 March 2013, essentially bypassing the city of Ankara and shortening the distance from Istanbul to Konya to 5 hours. Most recently on 8 January 2022, the Konya line was extended into another provincial capital, Karaman.
High-speed rail in Turkey is still developing, with new lines currently under construction or in the planning phase. By 2023, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure expects Turkey's high-speed rail system to increase to 10,000 kilometers.
Mainline services
Mainline service is the railway's main service. In 2010 mainline services made up for 24% of the railway's passenger traffic. Mainline service includes 2 types of trains: Express and Blue Train.Express service is between major cities and are fast, comfortable and equipped with modern air-conditioned TVS2000 railcars and only stop at important stations. Express trains have an average operating speed of to. Express service has both day and overnight trains between major cities far apart. These trains have coaches, a dining car and a sleeping car or a couchette car, or sometimes both.
The TVS2000 railcars used on mainline service are the most comfortable cars in TCDD's entire fleet. TVS2000 railcars may also be used on international services because international services are considered mainline services within Turkey.
International services
Former international services
The Haydarpaşa Terminal was the terminus for a weekly train, to Tehran in Iran, another train to Iran used to travel between Van, Turkey and Tebriz in Iran.Additionally, trains from Iran to Syria used to pass through Turkey.
- Trans-Asia Express, to Tehran, Iran via İzmit, Bilecik, Eskişehir, Ankara, Kayseri, Sivas, Elazığ, Tatvan, Van and Tabriz.
- Van-Tebriz Treni Route: Van, Özalp, Kapıköy, Razi, border crossing to Iran, Salmas, Tabriz
- Tehran – Damascus Train, route: Tehran, Tabriz, Razi, Kapıköy, border crossing to Turkey, Van,, Tatvan, Muş, Elazığ, Malatya, Fevzipaşa, Islahiye, Meydanekbez, Turkey – border crossing to Syria, – Meidan Ekbis, Aleppo, Damascus This service was interrupted when the border between Syria and Turkey was closed due to the Syrian civil war.
- Taurus Express, route: Istanbul: Haydarpaşa Terminal, Eskişehir, Kütahya, Afyon, Konya, Adana, Fevzipaşa, Islahiye, Meydanekbez, border crossing to Syria – Aleppo, Damascus
- Gaziantep – Baghdad: This service was indefinitely suspended since 13 March 2003 with the invasion of Iraq and the ongoing insurgency. Route: Turkey: Gaziantep, Karkamış, Akçakale, Ceylanpınar, Şenyurt, Nusaybin, border crossing to Syria, Al Qamishli,, border crossing to Iraq, El-Yaribieh, Rabia, Mosul, Baghdad. It was also running from Istanbul to Gaziantep as mainline until 2003. It is begun again on 16 August 2012 between Eskişehir-Adana but due to renovations, it's shortened to Konya-Adana route on 15 March 2013.
- Dostluk/Fillia Express , to Thessaloniki, Greece via Uzunköprü, Pythion and Alexandroupolis.The line however was eventually terminated in February 2011.
Regional services
Commuter services
As of 2011, the Turkish State Railways operated commuter rail in Istanbul and Ankara, with previous commuter service in İzmir from up to 2006, which is now operated by İZBAN. The railways use the E14000 and the E23000 EMUs on their commuter services. Previously, the newly retired E8000 EMUs and the E4000 electric locomotives were used as well. The first commuter rail service in Turkey was the Istanbul-Halkalı Line on the European side of Istanbul, operating from Sirkeci Terminal to Halkalı in 1955.Freight operations
Rail freight transport
From 1980 onwards, rail freight tonne-kilometers transported by the TCDD rose slightly from ≈5000million tonne-km in 1980 to ≈7000million tonne-km in 1990 and to ≈9000million tonne-km in 2000. Approximately 50% of freight moved is minerals or ores, with construction materials increasing to ≈10% in 2000 from less than 5% in 1980, food/agricultural products, chemicals/petroleum, and metal sectors each account for between 5 and 10%. International freight accounted for approximately 5% of totals in 2000.As of 2012, 25.7 million tons are transported by rail in Turkey. Two steel companies, Erdemir and Kardemir, top 2 customers of TCDD, had transported 4.5 million tons in 2012, mainly iron ore and coal. 2.1 million tons of rail freight belong to international traffic. Most of international traffic is between Turkey and Europe, done via Kapikule. Several container trains are running in this route as well as conventional wagons.
As of 2014, 26.6 million tons are transported on rail in Turkey. 7.1 million of it is done by private wagons. International transport went down to 1.7 million.
Containers are widely used both in international and domestic transportation. 7.6 million tons are carried in containers. TCDD supports transportation by containers. Thus, almost all of the private railway companies invested in container wagons, and carrying 20% of all rail freight by their own wagons.
TCDD has plans to strengthen freight traffic by adding 4000 km of conventional lines until 2023. That includes new international rail connections to Georgia, Iraq and Iran. TCDD is also constructing 18 logistic centers to enable transportation of more loads by rail.
TCDD is planning to increase its transit traffic by constructing "iron silk road" to connect Europe to Asia. Marmaray is the most important part of this project which was completed in 2015 and now in service. Another project is Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway which is planned to be completed in 2016 and start functioning in 2017. Also, plans for another supplying project to Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway, the Kars-Igdir-Nakhcivan high-speed railway has been completed. TCDD wants to have share from the freight traffic between Europe and China through this line.