TCDD to introduce high-speed train services

Turkish State Railways (TCDD) is planning on introducing additional high-speed train services between Ankara and the Central Anatolian province of Eskişehir, TCDD General Director Süleyman Karaman said.

According to todayszaman.com, the number of high-speed train trips daily between Ankara and Eskişehir will rise from 13 to 20 a day in September, Karaman said. The TCDD head noted that Turkey had purchased a new high-speed engine from Spain and had recently completed its test drives. Karaman said the high-speed train service would increase and that the TCDD is purchasing more high-speed trains in the future. Turkey launched high-speed train service between Ankara and Eskişehir with three trains on March 13 of this year. The high-speed trains reduced the previously 180-minute train trip between the two cities to almost 80 minutes.

The TCDD received another train from Spain last month that will be put into service between the two cities at the end of July.

Karaman stated that the railroad authority had completed construction of the high-speed train railway between Ankara's Sincan and Esenkent neighborhoods and that the Ankara Municipality was working on the level crossing in downtown Sincan. The TCDD head also noted that after the construction was completed, test drives between Sincan and Esenkent would be made and that that line section would start to be used for high-speed train services starting in September.

Turkey started constructing its high-speed rail lines in 2003. The project will eventually link Ankara with İstanbul. The first phase of the project was the line between Ankara and Eskişehir, which opened earlier this year. When the high-speed train project is fully completed, travel time by train will be three hours between Ankara and İstanbul, instead of the current six-and-a-half hours. The TCDD purchased its first high-speed train engines, with a maximum speed of 250 kilometers per hour, from Spain's CAF in 2007.
 

Source: Transportweekly