Terminals are the hearts of rail freight, playing an important role on the competitiveness of rail against other modals.
The capabilities of freight terminals show big variety in Turkey, from single siding with very little ramp to huge logistic centers.
TCDD is building 18 logistics centers all around Turkey, some of which are in our list.
The quality of terminals are determined by location, management, customs services, warehouses, rail/handling/trucking services, connections and facilities.
Here are the best 10 rail freight terminals of Turkey:
#10 – Kaklık Logistics Center
Owned and managed by TCDD. It’s a little far away from industrial regions in Denizli. It has sidings for different type of goods and strong rail services in terminal, but no warehouse, no regular service to ports, no rail connection to any plant, no facility like restaurant, public service etc nearby.
#9 – Köseköy Logistics Center
Owned and managed by TCDD. It’s one of the few freight terminals covering the most industrialized region of Turkey, Istanbul Asian side and Izmit. It has bounded area, but customs office is far away. It’s close to Derince and Evyap ports, but has no regular service. There’s no facility for staff in or around the terminal. Sidings are quite well, but does not have warehouse.
#8 – Balıkesir Gökköy Logistics Center
Owned and managed by TCDD. It’s close to Balıkesir industrial zone, but has not much freight traffic yet. There are sidings for different type of goods, but terminal administration office doesn’t manage the handling services. There’s no facility like restaurant, bank etc in the terminal.
#7 – Hasanbey Logistics Center
Owned and managed by TCDD. The terminal is at east of Eskişehir, not far away from industrial zone. Hasanbey is well designed by huge open storage area, long sidings for different type of goods and has strong in-terminal rail services. But there’s no warehouse, no regular service to ports, no rail connection to any plant and no facility for staff.
#6 – Biçerova Terminal
Owned and managed by TCDD. It’s at the backyard of Nemrut Bay ports and has regular container train service from Manisa. The terminal is mainly used for container trains, has enough sidings and open storage area, but has no warehouse. A direct rail connection to ports is planned. There’s no facility for staff in the terminal.
#5 – Yenice Logistics Center
Owned and managed by TCDD. Some parts are still under construction. It’s very close to Mersin Port, Mersin, Adana and Tarsus industrial zones. It has huge open storage area. But there’s no warehouse or rail connection to any plant. It has strong public transportation connection (Adana-Mersin train), but has no further facility for staff.
#4 – Çerkezköy Terminal
Owned and managed by TCDD. It had been the main terminal for container trains to Europe during closure of Halkalı Terminal. There’s bounded area in the terminal, and customs office is very close to terminal. There are rail connections to one plant and one warehouse from terminal. Trucking and handling services are being managed by Cerkezkoy Truck Union. No facitilty in terminal, but there are some nearby.
#3 – Boğazköprü Terminal
Managed by Akyapı. It’s located next to Kayseri industrial zone, mainly specialized for container traffic. Handling and trucking services are organized by Akyapı, which makes it very simple to organize any intermodal transport. There is regular container train service to Mersin Port from terminal. There’s no warehouse in the terminal nor any facilities like restaurants.
#2 – Halkalı Terminal
Owned and managed by TCDD. It’s at the European side of Istanbul and is the main terminal for most trains to Europe from Turkey. It has bounded area, rail connected warehouses, huge storage areas. The terminal administration office organizes not only rail services but also warehouse and handling services which makes it very easy to organize a transportation. There’s customs office and facilities like restaurants, ATM in the terminal.
#1 – MOS Logistics Center
Owned and managed by MOS Logistics. Located at the industrial zone of Manisa. The terminal is managed by MOS Logistics, a subsidiary of Manisa Industrial Zone. There are bounded warehouses and open storage areas in the terminal. All warehouses, handling and trucking services are organized by MOS Logistics. There’s regular container train service to Biçerova. There are some facilities in the terminal for staff. There’s no rail connection to any plant in industrial zone.
How we rate them?
Terminals are evaluated in 10 different areas and get 0-3 points from each of them. These areas are location (close to industrial zones), management (simplicity to access all services), customs (closest customs office, bounded area), shunting (if there’s enough lines, shunting service), handling (if there’s wide variety of equipments), trucking (how strong and efficient is truck service), warehouse (if there’s any warehouse in terminal), connected sites (if there’re rail connections to sites/plants around), connection with ports (if there’s regular train service to ports) and facilities (cafe, restaurant, bank, public transport etc).
Cover Photo: MOS Lojistik ©
Categories: Rail Freight
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