The long-awaited 8.6 billion lira high-speed train link between Istanbul and Ankara has finally been opened to packed rallies along the route and national TV coverage.
The maiden service’s passage through the Anatolian countryside on Friday was interrupted in Ankara, Eskisehir and Bilecik, where Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is standing for presidential election next month, disembarked to address the throngs.
"Turkey takes pride and joy in being the eighth country in the world and sixth in Europe to have a high-speed railway," Erdogan told a crowd of thousands outside Istanbul’s Pendik station.
There was a minor delay as the new train approached Istanbul, when an technical fault kept the prime minister and his entourage waiting for 15 minutes.
The high-speed service was first introduced in 2009 between the capital Ankara and Eskisehir to the west. The latest line links Eskisehir to Istanbul – joining Turkey’s political and financial capitals.
The original track has proved immensely popular with Turkish passengers, carrying 15 million since its launch, Turkish State Railways said. An estimated 7.5 million passengers are expected to use the new line.
To mark the event, Erdogan announced that travel on the line would be free for the first week of operation. A daily service of 13 trains will make the three-and-a-half hour journey, according to the state railways’ website.
The new addition to the country’s high-speed network means 1,420km of track can now carry the faster trains. There are plans to grow the network to 3,500km by the centenary of the Turkish Republic in 2023.
A link between Ankara and the Aegean city of Izmir – Turkey’s third largest – is high on the agenda as the network expands to 25,000km of track. Eventually, 17 cities will be connected by high-speed lines, servicing more than half the country's 77 million population.
Turkish State Railways announced in January that it would invest almost half of its 2014 budget – 1.8 billion lira ($860 million) – in high-speed train projects.
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