Best rail solutions in Turkish cities

By Onur Uysal on 11 Nov 15 • ( Leave a comment )

Busiest lines, largest ridership, most efficient metro, tram, light rail and suburban systems of Turkish cities.

The total network is more than 500 kilometers and the rolling stock exceeds 1800. Monthy ridership reaches to almost 100 mn. Here below are interesting statistics about urban rail systems in Turish cities:

Istanbul is at top in ridership

Istanbul has half of the rail passengers in urban transport, almost 50 million every month. Izmir follows with 16 million passengers.

Eskisehir on top in ridership per population

Let’s examine the figures comparing with the population of the cities. Eskisehir Tram (Estram), having UITP’s 2004 Rail Award, has the biggest coverage, where each citizen rides on rail almost 5 times a month. Izmir and Istanbul follows Eskisehir.

Istanbul is most efficient

Another criteria is ridership per kilometer, which may help us understanding how efficient the rail system is. Istanbul has top ridership/km, where Eskisehir and Izmir follows.

Rail transport in Istanbul

Longest metro network in Istanbul, Izmir is most efficient

There are 4 cities in Turkey with metros. Istanbul has the biggest network in terms of length and ridership. Izmir is most efficient with 410k passengers per km.

Rail transport in Izmir

Bursa leads in light rail

LRVs are mainly overground with less capacity compared with metro systems. There are 3 cities with LRV network. Bursa has the biggest network in terms of length and ridership. Ankaray in Ankara is the most efficient one with 330k passenger per km.

Rail transport in Bursa

Longest tram network in Kayseri

Trams are completely overground, sometimes using same space with cars, ability to run within streets and make sharp turns, having low capacity.

Kayseri has the longest tram network with 34 km, running 2 lines and is the third in ridership list. Istanbul has the second longest tram network with 2 lines, and has the biggest ridership.

Rail transport in Ankara

Marmaray is busiest suburban line

Suburban lines are the urban service on national rail network, which is given directly by or in cooperation with TCDD.

Izban in Izmir has the biggest ridership and longest network. Istanbul, with yet 13.5-km-long length, has 340k passenger per km, is far beyond others.