Following the Railway Cooperation Agreement, signed early this week during the visit to Turkey by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, China will lend funds in the ballpark of $28 billion to $30 billion to finance a number of high-speed train construction projects which aim to connect all corners of the country. The rail network will be suitable for high-speed trains that reach speeds of 450 kilometers per hour, the official, who avoided giving his name, asserted.
As a result of this loan, the Sürat Railway Project, which had been pending for quite some time following issues with inappropriate physical conditions at the Ayaş Tunnel, is back on the agenda once again.
Chinese officials conducted studies over the Sürat line and examined the Ayaş Tunnel to conclude that the completion of the project will be difficult but not impossible.
Officials from the ministry are planning to complete the Ankara-Sivas, Ankara-İzmir and Ankara-Antalya lines within 10 years and the entire 7,000 kilometers by 2023, in time for the hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the Turkish Republic. The Ankara-Konya and Ankara-İstanbul high-speed train lines are currently progressing under the country’s own resources. The government is also planning to kick off a Karaman-Mersin-Adana line under its own resources.
The Chinese loan, on the other hand, will fund the construction of the following high-speed rail lines: the Ankara-İstanbul Sürat Railway Project, which will pass through Bolu’s mountainous region; the Edirne-İstanbul line; the Ankara-Sivas line, which is also referred as the Ankara-Yerköy line; the Yerköy-Kayseri line; the Sivas-Malatya-Elazığ-Diyarbakır line; the Sivas-Erzincan-Erzurum-Kars line; the Erzurum-Trabzon line, the Ankara-İzmir line, which will pass through Afyon; the Ankara-Antalya line; and finally the Konya-Antalya line.
Once all these projects have been completed, a high-speed train starting its journey from Edirne in the farthest northwestern corner of Turkey will reach Kars in the outermost northeastern border in 12 hours. This train will pass beneath the waters of the Bosporus through the Marmaray tunnel, whose construction is still under way, and will travel along the lines of Eskişehir-Ankara-Yerköy-Sivas-Erzincan-Erzurum. The high speed train route will extend to Diyarbakır in Eastern Anatolia from Sivas, crossing Malatya and Elazığ. It will also stretch from Erzurum to Trabzon.
