Ankara Istanbul Speed ​​Railway Project

Ankara Istanbul Speed ​​Railway Project was included in the 2013 investment program. Ankara Istanbul Speed ​​Railway Project was included in the 2013 investment program. The project, for which 1 million 500 thousand liras has been allocated, will shorten the Ankara-Istanbul railway line by 160 kilometers. There is also a 10-kilometer-long Ayaş Tunnel within the Sürat Railway Project.

Upon the slower progress of the Ankara-Istanbul Speed ​​Railway Project, which was built by the Ministry of Transport DLH General Directorate, which was assigned to build the new railway lines in the country with the founding law, the General Directorate of TCDD Operations, which was tasked with the operation, maintenance and improvement of the existing lines, to improve the existing Ankara-Istanbul railway. prepared a "rehabilitation" project that can be realized in the short term.

This project, defined as "Ankara-Istanbul Railway Rehabilitation", on the existing line (such as the improvement / replacement of the switches, the replacement of the superstructure material and the modernization of the rail welding, signaling and electrification systems, the construction of automatic barriers in the urban areas and the level crossings, the enlargement of the curve radii and the construction of the variant. ) included remedial measures. In addition, the purchase of active reclining train sets was included in the project. With the project, it was aimed to reduce the travel time between Istanbul and Ankara to 4 hours 30 minutes.

This project, which was developed to reduce the problems of TCDD in the current line, was included in the investment program in 2001 as "construction". However, the development of the project exceeded the planned line in a short time, while the name and content of the "rehabilitation" project was changed to the "high speed train" project, the scope of the project turned into a new double-track high-speed train line in the same corridor instead of improving the existing railway line.

The project started as an improvement of the existing line with arrangements such as curb correction, infrastructure and superstructure improvements described above, but later,

• Making the 2nd line with the addition of a new line, one on the existing line,
• increasing the project speed from 200 km / h to 250 km / h,
• removal of all road and pedestrian level crossings,
• Preserving the existing line and building two new lines outside the existing line,
• elimination of crossings with the existing railway line,
• Taking the Eskişehir crossing and station area underground,
• Changing the line to be used only in passenger transport,
• It has been decided to use the 15 km section of the Speed ​​Line route in the Sincan section.

As a result of all these developments, major changes have occurred in the characteristics of the project and, accordingly, in its cost.

Upon the realization that the Sürat Railway Project could not be put into operation in the short and medium term, TCDD prepared a rehabilitation project to improve its existing line between Ankara and Istanbul. In 1991, the Council of Ministers Decision was made to implement the Ankara-Istanbul Railway Rehabilitation Project, which aims to operate at a higher speed by improving the curves on the existing line.

Although the new line (Speed ​​Railway Project) started to be built in 1977, the necessary resources were created for the Rehabilitation Project, which aims to improve the existing line, despite the "insufficient resource allocation", and in a short period of time, the scope and quality of the project was changed and in addition to the existing railway corridor, two high-speed railway it was converted into a new line, and the stopped Speed ​​Line was left uncertain. In the following sections, the features and developments of both projects are evaluated within the framework of the studies made for these projects.

Speed ​​Railway Project Features

In the Sürat Railway Project, a new railway line between Arifiye and Sincan has been planned as an alternative to the existing low standard fault of 576 km, passing through Eskişehir and Polatlı. This new connection with a total length of 260 km between Arifiye Sincan was designed for a speed of 250 km / hour. With the new section between Arifiye and Sincan, the total journey between Ankara and Istanbul is planned to decrease to 418 km (Table 1). The curb radii of the 260 km section of the 230 km long line are over 3.000 m (suitable for 250 km / h), and the radii are designed as 30 m (2.500 km / hour speed) in a 200 km section in the Sakarya Valley. In the project, the maximum slopes of the route are planned as 0% 12.5.

In the project, the route was divided into two parts and the construction of the 85st Section, which is 1 km long between Çayırhan and Sincan, was divided into five separate parts. The application projects of the 2nd Section, Çayırhan-Arifiye section, have not been prepared yet.

The first part of the line was tendered over preliminary projects in 1976 and then the preparation of implementation projects started. Between 1977-1980, the project and construction works of the 1st Section were carried out together. Since the completion of the projects in 1980, the liquidation of the tenders has started.

Line Cut Length
Ankara-Sincan 24 km
Sincan-Cayirhan 85 km
Cayirhan-Arifiye 175 km
Arifiye-Istanbul 134 km
418 km in total

Speed ​​Railway Project Current Status

A 85% realization has been achieved in the total of five sections of the 1 km long Section 75 between Çayırhan and Sincan, except for the 1st Section where the Ayaş tunnel is located, or have been liquidated (Table 2). In order to prevent the accumulation of water in the missing 10 km section of the Ayaş Tunnel, which is 2 km in total, this section has not been liquidated, and an allowance has been made in the budget for only the discharge of this water in the investment program for years.

Of the 20,4 km long tunnels to be built in the section between Sincan and Çayırhan, 17,1 km have been completed, and the remaining 3,3 km long tunnel construction was missing. For this segment, USD 316 million has been spent at current prices from the beginning until today, and when this value is updated, it reaches the level of USD 730 million. Since no maintenance and repair has been made in the buildings outside the Ayaş Tunnel, the structures abandoned to natural conditions have started to wear out in the intervening years. In the 31 years since its foundation as the largest railway project in the country, 21 governments have changed, the resources required for the completion of the 85 km long railway have not been allocated, but in the meantime the 1850 km long highway network has been put into operation.

Eskişehir-Esenkent: As the longest part of the 1st Section of the High Speed ​​Train Project, it created the first tender package and many technical features have changed during the project design and construction of this section. This section, where test drives are still being carried out, is planned to be put into operation in 2007. This 206 km long section is the part with the least technical difficulties on the entire route. The cost of exploration in this section, whose tender price is 437 million Euros, has approached 600 million Euros according to official figures for now.

Eskişehir-İnönü: This section, 33 km long, with an estimated cost of 70 million Euros, includes the construction of a double-track railway with high speed infrastructure, superstructure, electrification and signalization besides the existing line. Eskişehir Urban Crossing: In order to reduce the negative effects of the railway passing through the middle of the city, a 1,5 km section, 2,5 km of which is in the tunnel and 4 km in the cut, is taken underground together with the 6-way Eskişehir Station platforms. The estimated cost of this section has been determined as 35 million Euros.

Sincan-Esenkent: If the existing railway line is followed, the cost of this section will reach 72 million Euros and an 8 km long tunnel will be required, so it has been decided to reduce the cost by using the 15 km section of the Arifiye-Sincan Speed ​​Line project by shifting the route to the north.

Sincan-Ankara: It is a 24 km section that includes the construction of the fifth road between Ankara and Marşandiz, the fourth road between Marşandiz and Sincan, and the control of all pedestrian and vehicle crossings by TCDD, excluding the loan and tender scope.

Ankara Station: Includes increasing the capacities of the Ankara Station field and facilities and making them suitable for High Speed ​​Train operation. Inönü-Vezirhan and Vezirhan-Köseköy sections that make up the 2nd Section were tendered as two separate jobs, and both sections were taken by the same group of companies. These sections include the technically more difficult parts of the route, 156 km of this 40,5 km section consists of tunnels and 10,3 km of bridges and viaducts, one third of the route consists of art structures. These two sections, which were put out to tender with a total estimated cost of 877 million Euros, were tendered for 1100 million Euros, but there have already been delays. Due to the difficulties and uncertainties in the route of this section, which also includes the North Anatolian Fault Line crossings, it is expected that the cost and duration of the work will increase and 2010, which is envisaged as the opening year of this section, will be exceeded.

Cost of the Project

85 million USD is required for the completion of Section 1, which is 130 km long between Çayırhan and Sincan. There are different costs for the remaining 175 km long Çayırhan - Arifiye route. In the project prepared in 1977, considering that the line between Arifiye and Sincan will be used for both freight and passenger trains, the highest slope in the projects is accepted as 0 12,5%, a total length of 56 km tunnel is required. However, in addition to the developments in the technology of high-speed trains in the past thirty years, it is possible to design the Arifiye-Çayırhan area with higher slopes only for high-speed passenger trains, considering that there are now three lines in the existing railway corridor. It has been suggested to use 0 50% slopes in the studies conducted by Sofrerail company.

If the distance between Sincan and Çayırhan is designed according to different slopes, it is possible to reduce the length of the tunnel, which was 56 km in total, by half in the first project. It turns out that the Speed ​​Railway Project between Ankara and Istanbul can be completed with a total cost of USD 2 billion by using unit prices in the newly developed sections of the High Speed ​​Train Project.