Renewal and signalization of Zonguldak-Karabuk section of Zonguldak-Irmak project opened on Wednesday with a ceremony.

121 km-long Zonguldak-Karabuk section is first phase of 415-km-long Zonguldak-Irmak railway project.

The scope of project is renewal of all tracks with 49E1 type rails, renewal of bridges and tunnels, automatic barriers to all level crossings, enlarging Cankiri, Karabuk, Ulku, Balikisik and Yesilyenice stations and  ERTMS/ETCS Level 1 signalization.

The project was started in January 2012, with a deadline of January 2016 and a budget of € 227mn, 194 of which was from EU funds.

TL 563mn (€ 180mn) has been invested until this year for the project. This year’s budget is TL 237mn (€ 70mn). New deadline is 2018.

Passenger service started last month on Zonguldak-Karabuk section with DMUs. By the completion of signalization now, the trains are expected to speed up, since current speed of 3.5 hours for 121 km is not competitive compared with bus service.