Suburban train service started today between Halkali and Bahcesehir.

Halkali-Bahcesehir suburban train started service today. Train has two departures (one in the morning and one in the evening) in each direction.

Train calls at Halkali and Bogazkoy (Bahcesehir) stations for now. Other 3 stations (Konutbirlik, Altinsehir, Ispartakule) on way have not started to be used yet.

Train has a maximum speed of 70 km/h and travel time is 22 minutes.

Timetable is as below:

Marmaray sets with 5-cars are being used for this service, each having pax capacity of 1637.

Access from Bahcesehir to city center is quite hard due to traffic jam, thus suburban train is a great step for the region. However the number of departures is far from need. On the other hand, this strech is a part of the only single-track railway connecting Istanbul to Europe, where signalization works continue. The railway can hardly meet the increasing demand of container trains between Turkey and Europe. Thus, it will not be easy to increase the number of departures of suburban train in short period.

Cover photo: Onur Uysal ©