The railway connecting Ankara and Izmir, the third largest city in Turkey, is currently being constructed by the Turkish government, which will shorten the travel time between the two cities to three and a half hours instead of 14 hours.
The line between the two cities is 624 kilometers long passing through the cities of Afyon, Karahisar, Oshak, and Manisa.
The Minister of Transport, Communications and Maritime Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, Mr. Ahmed Arslan, said that the project is under construction and will be completed in 2020. The completion rate for the project has reached 28%, thus, the project will be implemented in a phased manner. The train will be operated in several phases in 2018 and 2019 and will be fully completed by 2020. The total project value is 8 billion 340 million Turkish liras.
On the other hand, work is underway on the express train project between Ankara and the city of Kayseri in the north-east of Turkey, which will shorten the time between these cities to an hour and a half, as it is about six hours currently. The government is working to connect all Turkish cities via railways, which are considered the fastest way to transport after air transport, is also an environmentally friendly way since it relies more on electricity and reduces carbon dioxide emissions.
Source: en son habar