Türkiye expands, modernizes railway network over 24 years

ANKARA

Türkiye’s railway network has expanded by nearly 3,000 kilometers since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu has said.

The network grew from 10,948 kilometers to 13,919 kilometers over the period, while 2,251 kilometers of high-speed railway were built from scratch, Uraloğlu said.

The minister said the existing network had also been renewed and modernized. Signaling systems now cover 61 percent of railway lines, while more than half have been electrified.

Türkiye has become the sixth country in Europe and eighth worldwide to operate high-speed trains, which have carried 114 million passengers since services began in 2009, according to Uraloğlu.