Although competition seems to focus on rail freight after liberalization, a stronger competition may be seen for passenger trains soon.
According to the draft of “Legislation for Public Services“ prepared by Railway Authority of Turkey, private companies can easily enter the passenger train market.
As suggested in the draft, Transport Ministry may open tenders for the passenger train services which are not profitable, but should continue.
Ministry will guarantee a “reasonable” profit for the company and even compensate “force majeure” expenses.
In specific cases Ministry may continue without opening a tender and buy directly.
As TCDD is making big loss in passenger trains, almost all of the passenger trains will either be closed or given as “public service” by Transport Ministry.
Private companies are already experienced at passenger transportation, and may make money from additional services in and out of train. Some of the bus companies already declared that they are following the liberalization closely.
According to draft legislation, Transport Ministry will buy all public services from TCDD Tasimacilik AS until the end of 2018. Beginning with 2019, private operators may also enter the tenders of Ministry.
Cover Photo: Steve Hobson ©
Categories: Railway Companies
Rail Turkey En 
Interesting that the bus companies are looking at the liberalization process, because, of course, this is what happened when the UK went down the road of privatization and many of the ‘franchised’ passenger operations were and are run by ‘bus’ companies.