Ankara-Sivas high-speed railway will be completed towards the end of 2018 or beginning of 2019, at the latest. Turkish Minister of Transport, Ahmet Arslan, said that before the finalization of works, the railway will be integrated in the international corridor Baku-Tbilisi-Kars.
“At present, a train journey between the capital of Ankara and Sivas lasts between seven and eight hours. We are now carrying out works on railway electrification and installation of signalling systems”, said Minister Arslan.
After the finalisation of works, the distance of 603 km between the two cities will be covered in two hours at speeds of 250 km/h.
“For the time being, the high-speed railway is operational on the distance between Ankara and Istanbul. Once the section to Haydarpaşa rail section is completed, passengers departing from Sivas will reach Istanbul in five hours”, added Arslan.
Finally, Ankara-Sivas high-speed railway will be connected to the recently inaugurated Baku-Tbilisi-Kars corridor. The corridor is considered an important part of the Middle Corridor within the Chinese Initiative One Belt, One Road.
Currently, Turkey benefits from a network of 1,213km of high-speed railway, while extension works to the network to Ankara, Kırıkkale, Yozgat and Sivas continue.
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