Egypt is getting better trains and Saudi Arabia is getting a slow luxury train. And an Israeli company helps make booking on European trains more streamlined. Turkey, which is has relied on buses for travel between cities, is now building a high-speed railway from Yerköy to Kayseri.
The project involves collaboration with Turkish companies Doğuş İnşaat, Çelikler, and Özkar, with backing from the UK’s Department for International Trade. The funding includes a 1.027 Billion Euro credit from the European Export Credit Agencies and a 220 Million Euro commercial credit line supported by the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit.
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The British Exporters Association believes these investments can stimulate UK business development, benefiting material and equipment suppliers. Meanwhile Turkey just rebuffed its export agreements with Israel siding with Hamas. Turkey has long sought entrance into the EU, but the UE has never considered membership seriously. Members place the blame for that not only on one side, but largely on one man: Erdoğan himself.
Meanwhile Turkey is moving on, solidifying agreements with Iran, China, and Russia.
The new Istanbul-Sivas line will take seven hours and 18 minutes, serviced by trains accommodating up to 483 passengers.
Osman Boyraz, deputy minister of transport and infrastructure, emphasized Türkiye’s strategic importance in international freight and passenger transportation. According to Boyraz, Türkiye invested 57 billion US dollars in building and renewing its railways over the last 22 years, increased the line length from 10,948 km to 13,919 km, and built 2,251 km of high-speed train lines.
The line between the capital city of Ankara and Eskisehir was the country’s first high-speed rail that went into operation in 2009, and the line was successfully extended to Istanbul in 2014 with a total length of 533 kilometers.
China Railway Construction Corporation and China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation, in partnership with two Turkish companies, built parts of the Ankara-Istanbul line.
According to Boyraz, high-speed trains have facilitated the transportation of 85 million passengers since 2009.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is the sole authorized coordinator and bank agent, while parts of the credit are reinsured by financial institutions in Italy, Poland, and Austria.
This marks the third railway construction project in Turkey financed by the UK, SACE, and OeKB, with a combined length exceeding about 900 km.
The new high-speed railway, started in August 2022, will connect to the Ankara–Sivas high-speed line, reducing traffic on the Yerköy–Kayseri route and cutting harmful emissions by 6.5 million tons annually.
Japan is a fan of high-speed trains, with its bullet train exceeding 300km an hour. While prices of the bullet train in Japan have doubled over the last year (it costs about $125 USD one way between Kyoto and Tokyo), the quick link between cities means a 6-hour drive from Kyoto to Tokyo can be a swift 2.25 hours. Headaches, vomiting, and dizziness might be a side-effect for first time travelers. I’d rather drive but the cost of driving a car in Japan is on the limit of what people can afford as well. The drive from Tokyo to Kyoto cost over $100 USD in tolls for highway use over 3 days.
