Istanbul has the biggest urban rail system in Turkey with metro, light rail, tram, cable car and funicular lines.
Network in Use : 142 km*
Lines Under Construction : 156.4 km*
Rolling Stock in Use: 750*
Rolling Stock Orders : 834*
Daily Ridership : 1.6 mn*
* As of May 2016, including Marmaray
Network
Total rail network for urban transport in Istanbul is 142 km long. Most is operated by Istanbul Ulasim, a subsidiary of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. Istanbul Ulasim has 90.5 km metro, 36.4 km tram and 1.4 km cable car and funicular lines. There’s also a suburban line of 13.5 km, Marmaray, operated by TCDD.
- M1 – Yenikapi-Airport/Kirazli (26.1 km)
- M2 – Yenikapi-Haciosman (23.5 km)
- M3 – Basaksehir-Olimpiyatkoy (15.9 km)
- M4 – Kadıkoy-Kartal (21.7 km)
- M6 – Levent-Hisarustu (3.3 km)
- T1 – Kabatas-Bagcilar (18.5 km)
- T3 – Kadikoy-Moda (2.6 km)
- T4 – Topkapi-Mescidi Selam (15.3 km)
- F1 – Taksim-Kabatas (594 m)
Ridership
1.6 millon passengers use rail systems every day in Istanbul. The last figures published by IETT is as follows:
| Metro | 613 062 |
| Light Metro | 308 420 |
| Tram | 497 230 |
| Tunnel/Funicular | 48 837 |
| Nostalgic Tram | 1 983 |
| Cable Car | 5 966 |
| Marmaray | 129 895 |
| TOPLAM | 1 605 393 |
Rolling Stock
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has the biggest urban transport fleet with 650 rail cars.:
- 348 metro cars (144 CAF, 112 Alstom, 92 Hyundai Rotem)
- 140 LRVs (105 ABB, 32 Duewag, 3 RTE)
- 150 trams (55 Bombardier, 37 Alstom, 34 Hyundai Rotem, 6 Gotha, 18 Istanbul Tram)
- 12 funicular and cable cars
- 100 Marmaray suburban rail cars (Hyundai Rotem).
New Projects
92,9 km of new metro lines and 63 km of suburban lines are under construction.
The rail lines under construction, length and target commission dates are as follows:
- M3 – Kirazli-Bagcilar metro Bakirkoy extension (9 km-2018)
- M4 – Kadikoy-Kartal metro Kaynarca extension (4.5 km-2016)
- M4 – Kadikoy-Kartal-Kaynarca metro Sabiha Gokcen Airport extension (7.4 km-2018)
- M5- Üskudar-Cekmekoy metro (20 km-2017)
- M7 – Kabatas-Meciyidekoy-Mahmutbey metro (24.5 km-2018)
- Marmaray suburban line Gebze and Halkali extension (63.5 km-2018)
- Bostanci-Dudullu metro (14.5 km-2019)
- Ikitelli-Atakoy metro (13 km-2019)
In addition to these, there are many rail projects which have not started yet.
Extension of Fleet
Mitsubishi is awarded for 126 metro cars to be used in Umraniye metro and Hyundai Rotem is awarded 68 metro cars (17 sets) to be used in Yenikapi-Haciosman metro.
The only valid offer for 300 rail cars of Kabatas-Mecidiyekoy-Mahmutbey metro came from Hyundai.
There are also 340 rail cars produced by Hyundai Rotem waiting to be officially accepted by TCDD. These will start operation after completion of suburban lines.
Map: Onur Uysal
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