Believing that supporting on-site production in Turkey is the key to Anatolia's development, Arkas has invested in railways for many years, bringing a new innovation to the Turkish logistics industry, and purchasing locomotives. The company, which ordered five Euro Dual model locomotives with an investment of 38,5 million Euros, initially announced that the locomotives will be launched in 2025. will receive three of them. It will transport import-export containers from Turkey's leading industrial cities to Turkey's largest ports with environmentally friendly locomotives.
Acting with the belief that connecting Anatolian cities to ports by rail will encourage on-site production and has been investing in this direction for more than 20 years, Arkas, with its motto "The Power Behind Logistics", makes pioneering investments in developing the logistics sector, with Arkas Rail, which it established under the umbrella of Arkas Logistics, as part of the 'Arkas Anatolia Project'. In the 100th anniversary of the Republic, it continues to break new ground by using the advantage of the railway to connect Anatolia to ports and the world at affordable costs.
While Arkas Rail orders five Euro Dual model, diesel and electric powered locomotives from StadlerRail Valencia SAU with an investment of 38,5 million Euros, it plans to purchase nearly 100 wagons. Thus, the company aims to offer its customers a faster and safer transportation service with lower cost advantages.
Making a statement on the subject, Arkas Logistics CEO Onur Göçmez said, “It was very important to purchase a locomotive in order to be able to carry out scheduled services on the railway. With the Liberalization of Railway Transport Law in Turkey, the private sector was given the opportunity to invest in locomotives. As a company that has been investing in railway equipment and land terminal for many years, we are planning to provide service to the entire sector with five locomotives, three of which will be delivered in 2025, under the roof of Arkas Rail, by breaking new ground in the sector. In addition to this, we are working on the purchase of 700 more wagons in addition to our 100 self-propelled wagons. Thus, Arkas Rail is currently carrying out railway transportation from Turkey's leading industrial cities such as Kayseri, Konya, Ankara, Gaziantep, Eskişehir to Turkey's largest ports. It will transport import-export containers with scheduled flights. On the other hand, it will serve with reciprocal block train services in rail container transportation, which continues to increase between Turkey and Europe, especially with countries such as Germany and Poland. This investment, which we will offer as a new service to the Turkish logistics industry, is an activity focused on port logistics, that is, container traffic, and will support the railport in Kartepe in the North and the land ports in Mersin Yenice in the South.
Environmental Locomotives
The most important feature of locomotives is that they are environmentally friendly. Thanks to the fact that the electric locomotives that emit zero carbon emissions also have a diesel engine, in case of a malfunction in the railway lines or power lines without electricity, they will be able to continue their transportation without interruption by switching from the electric engine to the diesel engine.
Route scheduled services to Europe and the railway Silk Road
Railport, the land terminal established in Kartepe by Arkas in partnership with duisport, the operator of Europe's largest intermodal logistics terminal, and which has been shown as one of the best examples of complete logistics applications, the importance of which has increased in recent years, is planned to start operating in 2024. While there will be a transfer terminal where the cargo on the trains coming from and going to Europe can be unloaded and handled again, Arkas will carry out European transports from here to Kapıkule with its own locomotives.
On the other hand, Arkas Logistics, which started the first rail transport on the BTK (Baku-Tbilisi-Kars) railway line in 2017, carries cargo to Europe in transit with the Marmaray connection on the China-Turkey Iron Silk Road with its company Arkas Rail, which it founded last year. While these newly opened transportation corridors offer the opportunity to transport Turkey's export cargoes to other new countries by rail, due to Turkey's geographical location, transit cargoes between Europe and Asia can be transported through Turkey, increasing the demand for rail transportation in Turkey, thus new generation locomotives and wagons. enabling investments to be accelerated.