New High Speed Rail Station Opens in Ankara

New High Speed Rail Station Opens in Ankara

New High Speed Rail Station Opens in Ankara :A brand new High Speed Rail (HSR) station was inaugurated in the Turkish capital Ankara on 29 October 2016, after two years of construction work.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and other state officials attended the opening ceremony on National Day, the 93rd anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic.

The new station has six tracks, where 12 high speed trains trains can stop at the same time. It also has two lines that are dedicated to freight trains. It includes a large car parking facility and is directly linked to Ankara’s conventional rail station and to the Ankaray Light Rail, Batıkent Metro, the Baskentray urban rail, Sincan Metro, Keçiören Metro and the Airport Metro.

In addition to Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları (TCDD) offices and service areas the new eight floor building includes large commercial spaces for restaurants, cafes, cinema, department stores and offices, as well as a five star hotel with 134 rooms.

Initially the station will be used by 20,000 passengers, daily. Once the HSR lines connecting Ankara to Sivas, Izmir and Bursa come into operation the number of daily passengers is expected to increase to 50,000.

Turkey became the sixth country in Europe and the eighth in the world to operate high speed trains, by starting HSR operations with the Ankara – Eskişehir line in 2009, followed by Ankara – Konya in 2011, Konya – Eskişehir in 2013 and Ankara-İstanbul plus Konya – İstanbul in 2014.

Writer: John Carlo Ottaviani

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