The contract is signed with Renfe for the first private passenger train of Turkey, Cappadocia Express.
According to contract, 2 train sets, each having Talgo Series 7 cars will be used for Cappadocia Express. Talgo Seies 7 passenger coachs are specially designed for overnight trains, each having comparts with bed, TV, WC and shower. Talgo coaches are much shorter than other competitors (about 13 meters) and flexibility to be designed according to needs is underlined. These are loco hauled coaches providing more silence during travel. Wheels can adapt to different gauges which makes possible to use this sets for service to Baku in the future as well. Max speed is 220 km/h.
A remarkable note about the contract is that Sun Tren is not buying train sets but the train service. No more details are publicized yet, but it most probably means Renfe is responsible for the technical management of the train. The contract is introduced as a long term cooperation in a developing market with high speed trains. Contract is for 2 years with option to extend..
Trains are planned to run 300 days and 285k km per year. HIS Turkey, which organizes many tours to Cappadocia, had announced that train would run betwen Istanbul (Sogutlucesme for the beginning, Haydarpasa when opened) and Kayseri. Company also aims to open other touristic train services in Turkey.
Cover photo: Talgo ©
Categories: Passenger
Rail Turkey En 
Super. Greetings from Switzerland / Abkhazia
Vital
great where can we book ?
The operator is yet trying to establish the service. It may take a couple of months to start.
Terrific news. Would much prefer to explore Turkey on rail than fly.
Great news. Loco hauled Talgo trains (here in Spain) are great. Good to know there will be a sleeper service – that is something that has (almost completely) disappeared from Spain with the arrival of the very fast AVE trains 😦 Will have to visit Turkey again once this new service is established !