Rail Turkey En

It is stupid to believe that you can totally cancel all train-connections for years and the customers just will come back after the service is reopened. No! The travellers have been let in a cold rain by TCDD and they was forced to find other travelsolutions. And now a big part of them will keep this other solutions. In no other countries the railway-companies thread their customers such hardly then in Turkey. And even if the new high-speed-connections are very fine and they are good to win additional customers, to keep the old customers it is absolutely necessary to restore all old connections, what means not only to run YHT-trains between Istanbul and Ankara. People also want normal trains between this important cites with frequent stops and lower prices and also an overnight train with couchette and berth. 7 hours between Istanbul and Ankara is long enough to spend the night on rails and save hotelcoasts.

I could see one reason why tourists would not use the Bosphors Express and that is the time spent crossing, entering and departing borders as well as when this takes place, in the early hours of the morning. Perhaps a daylight train leaving from the old station in Istanbul would be an incentive for tourists rather than travelling 25 Km to start the journey.

What has been achieved with the IZBAN system is impressive, but the system is plagued by a problem common to many urban systems: long journeys (Aliağı to Alsancak, for example) are tedious with the many stops. This reminds me of what it is like travelling from Heathrow Airport to central London on the Piccadilly Line. There needs to be consideration for the provision of express/limited stop services and this will certainly be necessary to encourage tourists to use the IZBAN for places such as Selçuk and Bergama. The IZBAN is also a way to access Foca (combined with ESHOT bus services) but would be more attractive with an express service.