Turkey has an ambitious program of high-speed-rail construction:
California High Speed Rail Blog » Turkey Looks to Expand HSR Network
High-speed train to be expanded across the country over 10 years | Nation | Daily Sabah
High-speed train between Ankara, Istanbul inaugurated | Money | Daily Sabah
RAILROAD.NET • View topic - Turkey's Second High-Speed Line: Ankara - Konya
Turkish State Railways (TCDD) has opened a line between Eskisehir and Istanbul, completing a line from Turkey's capital Ankara to its largest city, Istanbul. Trains will run on it at about 250 km/h (155 mph). They should take about 3.5 hours to travel the 511-km / 317-mi line, as opposed to 6 hours by car or bus.
The Ankara-Eskisehir line opened in 2009, and it was followed by a line from the middle of that line south to Konya in 2011. Turkey has an ambitious project of high-speed-rail construction, with several other lines being under construction of being planned. The under-construction ones include
From the "train inaugurated" article,
California High Speed Rail Blog » Turkey Looks to Expand HSR Network
High-speed train to be expanded across the country over 10 years | Nation | Daily Sabah
High-speed train between Ankara, Istanbul inaugurated | Money | Daily Sabah
RAILROAD.NET • View topic - Turkey's Second High-Speed Line: Ankara - Konya
Turkish State Railways (TCDD) has opened a line between Eskisehir and Istanbul, completing a line from Turkey's capital Ankara to its largest city, Istanbul. Trains will run on it at about 250 km/h (155 mph). They should take about 3.5 hours to travel the 511-km / 317-mi line, as opposed to 6 hours by car or bus.
The Ankara-Eskisehir line opened in 2009, and it was followed by a line from the middle of that line south to Konya in 2011. Turkey has an ambitious project of high-speed-rail construction, with several other lines being under construction of being planned. The under-construction ones include
- A 105-km line from Bilecik on the Eskisehir-Istanbul line west to Bursa
- A 405-km line from Ankara east to Sivas
- A line from the Ankara-Eskisehir-Konya junction west line to Afyon
- A line from Konya east to Karaman, Mersin, Adana, Osmaniye, and Gaziantep
From the "train inaugurated" article,
Turkey started building its railways in the mid-19th century during the Ottoman Empire, when world powers like Britain, France and Germany were given concessions to build stretches of track. The story goes that they were paid by the mile, resulting in an often bizarrely circuitous rail network that exists to this day. Development of the railways was also taken up by the first President of the Republic of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, but the system fell into neglect in tough economic times from the 1960s when hardly any new track was built.However, Turkey is very mountainous, and to keep grades down in mountainous terrain while avoiding building lots of bridges and tunnels, it's necessary to lay out very twisty track. So Turkey's twisty tracks are likely very typical.
