Ankara-sivas High Speed Train Line Opens Today

With the completion of the line, the total railway length will increase to 13,896 kilometers.

The train line, which will reduce the distance between Ankara and Sivas from 603 kilometers to 405 kilometers, has 8 stations.

With the new line to be opened, 1 million 400 thousand people will be offered the opportunity to travel by high speed train.

Minister Karaismailoğlu made a statement at Ankara YHT Station and said that they have transformed a very big and important project for the country from dream to reality.

Pointing out that railways became one of the priority sectors again under the AK Party governments led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Karaismailoğlu said, “We declared a mobilization in railways and started a brand new era. With the completion of our Ankara-Sivas High-Speed Train Line, we are increasing the length of the railway to 13 thousand 896 kilometers and the length of our high-speed train line to 2 thousand 228 kilometers.”

An Important Part Of The East-west High-speed Rail Corridor

Karaismailoğlu emphasized that the 405-kilometer line is an important part of the East-West high-speed railway corridor extending from Edirne to Kars and said that there are 8 stations on the line, namely Elmadağ, Kırıkkale, Yerköy, Yozgat, Sorgun, Akdağmadeni, Yıldızeli and Sivas.

Pointing out that they will introduce Kırıkkale, Yozgat and Sivas to the comfort of high speed train with the project, Karaismailoğlu continued his words as follows:

“With our line, we reduced the distance between Ankara and Sivas from 603 kilometers to 405 kilometers. We reduced the 12-hour railway travel time to 2 hours and the Ankara-Yozgat distance to 1 hour. With our project, we are connecting Kırıkkale, Yozgat and Sivas provinces to the Ankara-based high-speed train network and we are providing approximately 1 million 400 thousand citizens living in these provinces with the opportunity to travel by high-speed train. Ankara-Sivas HT line will host many passengers coming from Konya, Eskişehir and other cities including Istanbul. Thus, we will provide high-speed train service directly to 11 provinces located on the Ankara-Eskişehir-İstanbul, Ankara-Konya, Konya-Karaman and Ankara-Sivas high-speed train routes and indirectly to 9 provinces neighboring these provinces, in total 20 provinces, approximately 52 percent of the country’s population.”

We Used Domestic Rail For The First Time In High Speed Train Line

Stating that they have successfully completed 49 tunnels of 66 kilometers and 49 viaducts of 27 kilometers in length on the Ankara-Sivas High-Speed Train Line, Karaismailoğlu said that the longest tunnel of the project was built in Akdağmadeni region with 5 thousand 125 meters and the longest railway viaduct was built in Çerikli-Kırıkkale with 2 thousand 220 meters.

Karaismailoğlu said, “We built Turkey’s highest railway viaduct with a height of 89 meters in Elmadağ. We laid a total of 1676 kilometers of rails using domestic rails for the first time on the high-speed train line. With 138 kilometers of concrete roads, we realized the first ballast-free road, i.e. concrete road application in tunnels. Within the scope of the project, we built a domestic and national ice prevention and de-icing facility in Sivas.”

Emphasizing that they will increase the number of provinces receiving high speed train service to 52 when all railway projects are completed, Minister Karaismailoğlu stated that they will reduce the distance between Kızılay-Kadıköy to 80 minutes with the Ankara-İstanbul Super High Speed Train Line, which President Erdoğan gave the good news.