Uraloğlu gave information to the AA correspondent about railway investments in Turkey.
Emphasizing that passengers can reach 11 cities directly via YHT, Uraloğlu said, “We have considered railways as a state policy with the development moves we have initiated since 2002 and determined them as a priority sector. By embracing the vision of ‘weaving our homeland with iron networks’, we ensure that our passengers in our country can travel to Istanbul, Ankara, Sakarya, Kocaeli. It is possible to go to Konya, Bilecik, Eskişehir, Karaman, Kırıkkale, Yozgat and Sivas by YHT. “We provided it.” he said.
Stating that they have initiated a new breakthrough in railways in order to transform the opportunities provided by Turkey’s geographical location, which serves as a bridge between Asia and Europe, into economic and commercial advantages, Uraloğlu said that they have increased the investment plan target in this field.
Uraloğlu pointed out that they have developed railway passenger transportation in Turkey and continued as follows:
“We have carried 93 million passengers with YHTs so far. While 11.9 million passengers will travel with these trains in 2023, we expect this number to reach 12.4 million in 2024. Currently, the length of the railway line in our country is 13 thousand 919 kilometers. Of this, 11 thousand “668 kilometers of it are conventional, 2 thousand 251 kilometers of it are high-speed trains.”
THE SHARE OF RAILWAYS IN TRANSPORTATION WILL BE INCREASED
Uraloğlu stated that they have completed 6 thousand 978 kilometers of the railway projects, 3 thousand 776 kilometers are ongoing and the project of 5 thousand 785 kilometers is continuing.
Referring to sectoral indicators in the railway, Uraloğlu said, “We aim to increase the share of the railway in passenger and freight transportation with the electrification and signaling of existing lines. This year, our electrified line length is 2 thousand 274 kilometers, and we plan to increase this to 12 thousand 561 kilometers in 2028. This is 8 thousand 46 kilometers.” “We plan to increase the length of our signaled line to 13 thousand 772 kilometers in 4 years.” he said.
Emphasizing that they aim to ensure the integration of all transportation modes and provide better service to passengers by prioritizing the railway, Uraloğlu reminded that they have implemented many high-speed train projects for this purpose.
THREE MAJOR SPEED TRAIN PROJECTS
Uraloğlu stated that they solved the transportation problems of the people with pinpoint projects and said:
“We opened the Ankara-Eskişehir section of the Ankara-Eskişehir-İstanbul YHT Project on March 13, 2009, and the Eskişehir-İstanbul section on July 27, 2014. The investment cost of the project was 2.6 billion dollars. The design speed of the project, which has a length of 534 kilometers, is 250 kilometers per hour. We have carried 55.7 million passengers to date, 20.7 million of them. 34.3 million of them traveled on the Ankara-Istanbul and 717 thousand 485 on the Eskişehir-Istanbul line. We continued our investments to contribute to transportation in the busiest cities of the country. In this context, the Ankara-Konya-Karaman YHT Project is one of the important works we have done. The investment cost of the project is 1.4 billion dollars and the length is 411 kilometers. The Ankara-Konya section of the project will be completed on 23 August. We opened it in 2011 and have served 20.5 million passengers to date. We implemented the Konya-Karaman High Speed Train Project on January 8, 2022, and with the opening of this line, we started direct YHT operation between Karaman and Ankara. “We carried 2.1 million passengers between Karaman and Istanbul, 1.5 million passengers between Karaman and Istanbul, and 11.1 million passengers between Konya and Istanbul.”
Stating that the Ankara-Sivas YHT was put into service as 405 kilometers on April 26, 2023, Uraloğlu said, “In the project, which is one of the important works of the Central Anatolia Region, we started the Sivas-Istanbul YHT services on May 4, 2024. Since the line was opened on April 26, 2023, this Since Sivas-Ankara and Sivas-Istanbul YHTs, 1.7 million people “Thus, we have served 93 million passengers with our YHTs to date. We will provide more comfortable and faster transportation for our citizens with our new projects.” he said.
