Ankara high-speed train terminal to be operational in 2016

Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communications Minister Feridun Bilgin said that 54 percent of the Ankara High-Speed Train Terminal had been completed so far and they aimed to put the terminal into service in the first half of 2016. There will be three railroad platforms and six speed-train lines in the seven-storey terminal, which covers 178,000 square meters of closed area, Bilgin said. The new terminal will be connected to Ankaray, Başkentray, Batıkent, Sincan and Keçiören subway lines and be the center of the rail system in Ankara. "The facility will be one of the most modern speed-train terminals in Europe when it is put into service with a capacity of 15,000 passengers, a 4-star hotel, restaurants, cafes, lounges, buffets and a closed parking garage with a capacity of 1,255 vehicles." Bilgin said that while the new terminal is being constructed, the existing terminal building and the facilities around it are protected with history sensitive planning approach and the existing terminal will continue to provide service on conventional lines.

"More than 20 million passengers were transported with the speed trains of Ankara-Eskişehir, Ankara-Istanbul, Ankara-Konya and Istanbul-Konya which we put into service a short time ago. In addition to those lines, we are continuing to work day and night to weave speed-train lines across the country. Work on the lines of Ankara-Sivas, Ankara-İzmir and Bursa-Bilecik-Ankara are continuing. We are starting to construct the first stage of Sivas-Erzincan line," Bilgin said.

Bilgin emphasized that they continue to work with a belief ‘an investment made in railroads means an investment made in the future'. He noted that they aim to build 3,500 kilometers of high-speed railroads, 8,500 kilometers of speed railroads and 1,000 kilometers of conventional railroads, totaling 25,000 kilometers of railroads by 2023, which is the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Turkish Republic.