The suburban train service, Gaziray, will start service today at Gaziantep.

The suburban train service of Gaziantep, connecting Baspinar at Northwest to Taslica at Southeast is commisioned today. Gaziray will be the fourth suburban train service of Turkey.

The project was started in 2011 with the idea to upgrade the 25.5-km-long single track line. Now the strech has 4 tracks, completely electrified and signalized, 16 modern stations and has no level crossing. The 5-km-long part of the line through city center is now going underground.

The cars to be used on the service, 8 cars each with 4 cars are being produced by Turasas. Deliveries will be done between Jan-Jun 2023. Until then, E23000 sets will be used. These 3-cars-EMU-sets are mainly used at Ankara suburban train service.

There’ll be 33 services in each direction, departing every 30 minutes. First service from Taslica is at 6:00, from Baspinar at 6:15. Last service from Taslica is at 22:00, from Baspinar at 22:15. Travel time is 35 minutes. As all sets of Turasas delivered, service will be able to depart every 15 minutes.

50k pax are expected to use the service every day. As connected buses and shuttles start, some of daily traffic of 250k between city center and industrial complexes is expected to shift to Gaziray. Sports fans will also be able to use Gaziray for stadium.

Gaziantep main train station will be the interchange station for other passenger services. After long time, the first passenger train service to/from Gaziantep will also start today: Gaziantep-Nizip regional train. 2 trains will depart every day in each direction.

Gaziray is not integrated to Gaziantep tram network yet, but still in walking distance. T1 and T2 tram lines are 300 meters from Gaziray’s Gar station and T2 and T3 tram lines are 500 meters from Adliye station.

Cover photo: Kalyon ©