Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu stated that the railway is the culture of this country and drew attention to the fact that the first domestically designed locomotive engine Özgün was produced with 8 cylinders, and the engineering infrastructure was designed to respond to 12 and 16 cylinders. Karaismaioğlu said that the original engine would be a sought-after engine in the ship industry apart from locomotives.
Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu attended the “160 Series Original Engine Family Launch”. Karaismailoğlu, who stated that they fit the works to be done in 100 years in 20 years and that history will write this, said that 20 years ago, there was an underdeveloped infrastructure in Turkey, and at this point, the airline infrastructure was completely finished and a very important part of the road infrastructure was completed. Expressing that they have removed the obstacles to mobility in Turkey with the divided road network that has reached 29 thousand kilometers, Karaismailoğlu said, “There were 20 million vehicles throughout Turkey 8 years ago. Today, the number of registered vehicles in Turkey is 26 million. But the traffic jam is much, much less than it was 20 years ago. Because, thanks to these investments, we have removed all obstacles. There are great investments in this transportation infrastructure in the development of industry, production, employment, tourism and agriculture all over Anatolia. We have removed the blockages that have been in front of Turkey for centuries,” he said.
Pointing out that one unit of transportation infrastructure investment affects production 10 times and national income 6 times, Karaismailoğlu said that these effects are seen in every corner of Anatolia. Underlining that 20 billion dollars of investment has been made in 183 years, Karaismailoğlu noted that the effect of these investments on production is 1 trillion dollars and the national income is 600 million dollars. Stating that 1 million people are employed every year with the investments, Minister of Transport Karaismailoğlu said, “We have completed our transportation infrastructure. We made 183 percent of our 65 billion dollar investment in highways. We have completed an important shortcoming in highways. From now on, we have entered a period of investment mainly in railways. We have 13 thousand 100 kilometers of railway network throughout Turkey. 1400 kilometers of this is high-speed train line. We have an intensive work on the railway line of 4 thousand 500 kilometers, which is currently under construction. As a result of this intensive work, we are striving to increase our 8 high-speed train-connected provinces to 52,” he said.
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO MAKE VEHICLES AND EQUIPMENT DOMESTIC AND NATIONAL
Karaismailoğlu noted that the history of railways in Turkey is very old and that the history of railways began in Turkey in the 1850s, adding that there is a railway culture of approximately 167 years. Karaismailoğlu said, “The railway is a part of our stalemate” and that they aim to develop it and spread the comfort of high-speed trains to Turkey. Reminding that the master plans are being prepared, Karaismailoğlu noted that the number of passengers carried on the railway, which is 19.5 million today, will be increased to 270 million. Explaining that 38 million tons of freight was transported on the railways last year, and with the investments to be made, this will increase to 440 million tons, Karaismailoğlu continued as follows:
“As a result of the expansion of the railways, it is very important that the vehicles and equipment to be operated here are made locally and nationally. Especially in the metros in Istanbul, there are all the metro vehicles of the world's railway brands. Today, we have left behind very important levels in the railway sector. We are producing the vehicles we will use in our Gayrettepe-Airport Metro line, which we will open soon, in Ankara with a 60% locality rate. Again in this line, we realized something like a revolution. We carried out joint work with Aselsan for our domestic and national signaling. Certification studies are currently in progress. Likewise, our private sector produces the vehicles of our Gebze-Darıca Metro line in Ankara. We have started our efforts to make our signal local and national, as in Gayrettepe-Airport. We received one of the vehicles to be used in our tram line in Kayseri. Vehicles to be used in Gaziray will be produced in Adapazarı. It is still working on it. Next year, our domestic and national vehicles will start working in Gaziray.”
Emphasizing that only Turkey's need is 2035 billion dollars until 17,5, Karaismailoğlu said, “When you consider the needs of our close neighbors in the near geography, there is a market here that is much more than 17.5 billion dollars. In order to get an important share from this market, we will realize this market together, from the dynamism of both our state institutions and the private sector. We will meet this need from domestic national resources. In this railway work we do, we have a Gebze-Köseköy line in particular. Here, too, our work continues. The important reason for mentioning these works here is that both Tübitak's and informatics Valley's stations will be on this line. The construction processes continue. We are also finishing the stations of both IT Valley and Tübitak in the near future. After we set up the signaling system, our friends working in the informatics valley at Tübitak will start to benefit from the comfort of the rail system.”
WE WILL USE THE UNIQUE ENGINE IN LOCOMOTIVES
Underlining that the Özgün Motor project is very valuable, Karaismailoğlu said:
“We are working with Tübitak Rute. Together with our colleagues in Tübitak Rute and TCDD, we have exceeded a significant part of our need for these railway vehicles in the railway sector, their infrastructure. As you know, we have entered an important stage last year by combining the forces of three important railway factories, Eskişehir Adapazarı and Sivas. Now we manufacture both our suburban trains and national electric trains in Adapazarı, our locomotives and railway maintenance equipment in Eskişehir, and we meet a very important part of our wagon needs in Sivas. The production of our National Electric train is finished. At the moment, test drives have reached 10 thousand kilometers. The production of our second train set has been completed. On the one hand, we also started our mass production. When these certification and test drives are completed in the coming days, we will start to see our domestic national train on our railway tracks. Our train, which will reach a speed of 160 kilometers after it, is also about to finish the design work of our domestic national electric train with a speed of 225 kilometers. After its first prototype, we will start our mass production. Original Engine was produced with 8 cylinders, but the engineering infrastructure was designed to respond to 12 and 16 cylinders as well. We will start using it in our railway vehicles, especially in our locomotives, but it will be a sought-after engine in the ship industry and shipyards in the coming days.”
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