Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu stated that they invested 22 billion dollars in railways in 57 years and said that high-speed train lines reached 50 percent of the population.
13 Thousand 919 Kilometers of Railway Line
Minister Uraloğlu emphasized that they have made important breakthroughs in railways for 22 years and said that they have connected all over Turkey with rail system networks. Uraloğlu said, "In the last 22 years, we have literally changed the face of Turkey with serious investments, improvement, renewal and development moves in the railways in our country." Minister Uraloğlu noted that all existing railway lines were completely renewed and the line length, which was 10 thousand 948 kilometers, increased to 13 thousand 919 kilometers, and said, “We built a 2 thousand 251 kilometer high-speed train line. "We increased our signaled line length from 2 thousand 505 kilometers to 8 thousand 46 kilometers and our electrified line length from 2 thousand 122 kilometers to 7 thousand 142 kilometers," he said.
“Our High Speed Train Lines Reach 50 Percent of Our Country's Population”
Minister Uraloğlu underlined that the amount of investment they made in railways in 22 years reached 57 billion dollars and emphasized that they introduced Turkey to High Speed Train operation. Pointing out that Turkey is the 6th high-speed train operator in Europe and the 8th in the world, Uraloğlu said, “Eskişehir was the first city to meet the High Speed Train in our country with the Eskişehir-Ankara line in 2009. High-speed train operation, which started between Ankara and Eskişehir, continues on the Ankara-Istanbul, Ankara-Konya, Konya-Eskişehir, Istanbul-Konya, Konya-Karaman and, of course, the Ankara-Sivas-Ankara routes that we put into service last year. To date, the total number of trips made on our high-speed train lines has reached 84 million. Currently, our high-speed train lines provide direct service to 11 cities and indirect service to 9 cities through regional and bus connections, reaching 50 percent of our country's population. "And no one should doubt that we will continue to connect all parts of Turkey with railway networks and bring our citizens together with new train services for the comfort and confidence of our citizens," he said.
“The distance between Ankara and Istanbul will be reduced to 80 minutes”
Uraloğlu emphasized that they made Ankara the center of high-speed train lines with the Ankara-Eskişehir, Ankara-Istanbul, Ankara-Konya and finally Ankara-Sivas High Speed Train Lines. Stating that they have built a modern YHT Train Station, Uraloğlu said, “We are rapidly continuing our work on the Ankara-İzmir line, which will reduce the travel time between Ankara-İzmir from 14 hours to 3 hours 30 minutes. In addition, after our Istanbul-Ankara High Speed Train line, we are planning a completely new line between Ankara and Istanbul. We put the Ankara-Istanbul Super Speed Train Line project on the agenda and completed the preliminary project work. We are currently traveling at a speed of 250 kilometers. With our super high-speed train line, we will reduce the travel time to 350 minutes with our trains that will reach a speed of 80 kilometers per hour. "In other words, we will be able to reach Istanbul from Ankara without even finishing a football match played in Bağlum Stadium, which our President brought to Ankara," he said.