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Service on a new high-speed rail line running from Tekirdağ’s Çerkezköy district to the Kapıkule border crossing with Bulgaria officially began on Oct. 9, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu has announced.
With President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in attendance for its opening, the new Çerkezköy-Kapıkule high-speed rail line is part of the Istanbul Halkalı-Kapıkule High-Speed Train Project. The line reduces travel time to 54 minutes, according to the minister’s written statement.
The high-speed service operates three round-trips. Trains heading from Çerkezköy to Edirne depart at 10:45 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., while the trains in the opposite direction depart at 9 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5:45 p.m.
“Our trains serve our citizens with a total seating capacity of 411, including two seats reserved for wheelchair users,” the minister stated.
Uraloğlu noted that regional train schedules have been updated to accommodate the new line, with two daily round-trip trains now running between Istanbul’s Halkalı station and Edirne’s Uzunköprü district along the same rail corridor.
Uraloğlu noted that these regional trains depart from Istanbul’s Halkalı station to Uzunköprü at 8:25 a.m. and return from Uzunköprü to Halkalı at 3:40 p.m. Passengers traveling between Istanbul and Edirne can now easily complete their journey by transferring between the regional and high-speed trains at Çerkezköy station.
