Türkiye restores strategic 350-kilometer railway along Syrian border

Türkiye reopened a strategic 350-kilometer (217-mile) railway corridor along the Syrian border to freight traffic following an infrastructure overhaul after 13 years of deferred maintenance, aiming to integrate the nation’s southeast into a broader global trade network.

Abdulkadir Uraloglu, Turkish transport and infrastructure minister, said the route includes the 325-kilometer (201.9-mile) Karkamis–Nusaybin and the 25-kilometer (15.5-mile) Senyurt–Mardin lines.

The route resumed train operations on March 31 after its first comprehensive rehabilitation in over a decade. Routine maintenance and repairs along the border route were suspended from 2011 to 2024, so the project turned into a complete reconstruction as it required more than basic upkeep.

Engineers rebuilt track and station foundations, installed new drainage systems to prevent flood damage, and reinforced ⁠750 meters (0.46 miles) of unstable ground.

Uraloglu stated that workers replaced more than 2,500 girders across various bridges and culverts to ensure the route could handle heavy freight, while also implementing critical structural upgrades to the Karkamis Bridge.

The minister said the project is not merely a restoration of the rail corridor but an essential modernization effort to ensure Türkiye’s economic future.

The newly rehabilitated border tracks will serve as a link in the Development Road project.

The restored Karkamis–Nusaybin and Senyurt–Mardin lines are slated to directly support the planned Ovakoy–Nusaybin railway, an upcoming transit corridor connecting the Persian Gulf to European markets via overland routes through Iraq and Türkiye.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim in Istanbul