Halkali-Gebze suburban service started

By Onur Uysal on 13 Mar 19 • ( Leave a comment )

Marmaray trains started service this morning.

The Marmaray Project, which involves the suburban trains crossing all Istanbul from Gebze to Halkali and high speed trains arriving to city centre of Istanbul and European side is opened this morning.

Here are some details and first day impressions from Marmaray trains:

Trains are full

Citizens of Istanbul started using Marmaray trains from the first day. The trains were full especially in city center direction.

Fare system started

Marmaray train fares depend on the distance travelled. Minimum fare is TL 2.60 without discount, max TL 5.70 for Istanbul Card owners. System gets the max amount on the enterance, and refund on exit. Fares are as follows:

In the first day, refunding system fails in some stations. In some cases, passengers saw “not refundable” message, though it’s refunded.

Most of these problems were told to be solved with software updates until noon.

Departures every 15 minutes

Trains are running between Halkali and Gebze every 15 minutes, between Sogutlucesme and Zeytinburnu every 8 minutes. Marmaray trains use CBTC, thus frequency may go down to “every 2 minutes” in the future.

Service until midnight

Marmaray trains depart from Gebze and Halkali at 06:00. All stations meet at least one trains until 06:30.

Last train departs from Gebze at 22:15 and arrives Halkali at 00:15. The last train from Sogutlucesme to Zeytinburnu is at 23:54.

Last train departs from Halkali at 22:00 and arrives Halkali in the midnight. Last train from Zeytinburnu to Sogutlucesme is at 23:20.

The timetables of first and last trains are as follows:

Delays/disruptions

Some trains delayed in the first day of the service. A couple of trains had problems. Passengers were taken to other trains.

New livery for Marmaray sets

440 cars were already produced years ago. Most of them were waiting at Edirne. These sets have started service with a new livery.

Stations are ready

Enterance, security, escalators, elevators, tickets offices and turnstiles seems all ready, nothing important reported in social media. The timing of next train is not shown in info boards which seems the only missing thing at stations.

Smoking at stations is at the top of complaints-list just after the refunding problem.