Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday opened the 153-kilometre high-speed rail section between Cerkezkoy and Kapikule, part of the Halkali–Kapikule line linking Turkey and Europe. He said the project would cut freight transport times and increase rail capacity by about 4 times.
Shorter travel times and increased capacity
Erdogan said during the opening ceremony that the line would cut travel time between Halkali in Istanbul and Kapikule in Edirne province, near Greece and Bulgaria, from 4 hours to 1 hour and 30 minutes. It would also reduce freight transport time from 8.5 hours to 3.5 hours.
Erdogan said the Halkali–Kapikule line has a total length of 229 kilometres and consists of three phases, with the Cerkezkoy–Kapikule section the longest of them. He added that the line has two tracks, is electrified and is equipped with signalling systems.
Linking the Middle Corridor with the Development Road
Erdogan said the project would strengthen the Middle Corridor’s connection to Europe. The corridor runs through Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and Kars and Marmaray in Turkey. It is also part of the Development Road project, which extends from Iraq’s Al Faw port through Turkey to Europe.
He added that the line would facilitate access for industrial areas, particularly in Istanbul, to European markets, help speed up transport and strengthen logistics services, and shorten travel times, supporting production, exports, employment, trade and tourism, as well as the economy of Thrace and Turkey as a whole.
Rail investment in Turkey
Erdogan said the current value of transport investments during the Justice and Development Party’s period in power had reached 355 billion dollars, of which about 80 billion dollars had been allocated to railways.
Turkey’s railway network reached 13,919 kilometres, while the length of electrified lines rose from 2,122 kilometres to 7,274 kilometres. The length of lines equipped with signalling systems increased from 2,505 kilometres to 8,419 kilometres, Erdogan said.
The Turkish president added that his country had built 2,251 kilometres of high-speed rail lines, with 51% of its population currently benefiting from the services. He said completion of the Cerkezkoy–Kapikule line would increase the length of the high-speed rail network to 2,604 kilometres and the number of provinces directly connected to it to 14.
Trade routes between Asia and Europe
The Middle Corridor links China with European countries through Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, reducing freight transport time between Europe and Asia to 15 days. It also links Turkey directly with 21 countries. The corridor is 4,256 kilometres long by road and rail, in addition to 508 kilometres by sea.
The Development Road project includes a highway and a railway line running from Iraq to Turkey and its ports. The route within Iraq is 1,200 kilometres long and aims to facilitate freight transport between Europe and the Gulf countries.
