Hello to a New Year

TCDD General Manager Ali İhsan Uygun's article titled Merhaba Hello to a New Year Ra was published in the January issue of Raillife magazine in January 2020.

THIRD WORKS OF TCDD GENERAL MANAGER UYGUN

New year means new goals and new excitement.

After a successful year, 2020 will be a year in which we will take major steps in many important projects.

Growing markets and increasing international trade volume also affect the development of the railway sector and require new initiatives and large investments.

The somut One Generation and One Road Project olan, which will contribute to the future of transportation in Eurasia, is the most concrete example of this approach. With the visit to China in the second half of December 2019, we laid the groundwork for very important commercial connections for our country in transit rail transport. We will continue our transit trade activities that will contribute to our economy without slowing down.

When we consider rail transportation from this perspective, our high-speed railway projects that will bring the east and west of our country closer will encourage us to walk to the future with hope and determination.

We achieved 95% physical progress in infrastructure construction of Ankara-Sivas YHT line. We will start test drives in the coming days and start operating in the first half of 2020. Thus, we will reduce rail transport between the two cities from 12 hours to 2 hours.

In addition, the construction work continues on all sections of the Ankara-İzmir high-speed railway. We aim to complete the Polatlı-Afyonkarahisar section at the end of 2021 and the Afyonkarahisar-İzmir section at the end of 2022. Thus, we will reduce the rail travel time between Ankara and Izmir from 14 hours to 3 hours and 30 minutes.

I wish that the year 2020 will be beneficial for our nation, our country and our railways.