And the good news is: You won’t miss your train!

 That is a sad subject, but the part that interested Lütfü and me was the confirmation of the rumors about the virtual shutting-down of Haydarpaşa as a train station for an indeterminate period of time. This was the first time we had read anything about it in print media, and we had supposed that anything as big as stopping trains all over the west of Turkey would be big news; maybe we had missed something, but we hadn’t. We searched, and there was one other article the same day, in Milliyet. While Today’s Zaman emphasized the planned re-development of the station, Milliyet emphasized the stopping of the trains. While the Today’s Zaman article received no online comments, the Milliyet article received 33. While many expat readers have their own cars, don’t use the trains and live in İstanbul, this is a serious enough issue that I felt the need to write about some of the implications we face as a region, car or no car, Asian side or European.

After seeing the Today’s Zaman article, we did what we should have done before and started digging. The only other mention we could find in online print media was a Hürriyet article from Dec. 21, 2011; it was the most informative of the three regarding the trains, for it announced that because the fast train is coming, the Haydarpaşa-Gebze train would be suspended as well as Haydarpaşa’s Eskişehir Express to Ankara, both for a period of two years.

Before I go any further, and before you skip to the sports section, let me tell you one of the most impressive things that came up in our research. We are talking about the Haydarpaşa Banliyö (suburban) train that runs every 20 minutes between Haydarpaşa and Gebze for the price of a jeton, or less if you have an Akbil (TL 2 versus TL 1.75). In 2010, according to the official Turkish State Railways (TCDD) website, 26,409,000 -- yes, twenty-six million, four-hundred-and-nine thousand** -- passengers rode that train, traveling 924 million kilometers. The numbers went up every year from 2006 to 2010, so heaven knows how many traveled last year -- 27 million? 30 million? Got your attention yet? No? Well, where do you suppose all those millions and millions of people are going? How would they get there without the Banliyö? This impossibility was what kept us in denial for so long.

First, we looked at the TCDD website, and yep, most Ankara trains are due to be canceled by Feb. 1, including east-bound express trains. In addition, the regular train to Adapazarı will be closed (more on that later). It said nothing about the Banliyö train.

Looking for substitutes for the Banliyö

Next, we called TCDD’s call center; they had no information as to alternative forms of transportation to replace the Banliyö, and yes, it would be closed soon, but they had no other information. Then we called Haydarpaşa train station; they were the ones closing, right? They should know what was going to be done with the passengers. They had no information as to that, but they assured us the Banliyö would be open at least another year. Well, that was good news, sort of; you never know what could happen in a year, and they would have time to think about how they were going to get folks moving again. We now called the Ministry of Transportation; surely the government would have thought of what we locals out here in Kocaeli, Sakarya (Adipazarı’s province) and İstanbul were going to do with all those people, not to mention the issue of increased traffic on two continents. The Ministry personnel were happy to take our information and promised a call-back. This was on Friday, Jan. 20. They did a great job of calling us back on the following Monday and graciously referred us to write to the TCDD (see above).

In the meantime, we had called the mayors’ offices in Sakarya (“We have already some buses to the İstanbul bus station for TL 17 to TL 20”) and Kocaeli (“We are having a meeting about that now”).  In desperation, we called the Adapazarı train station. Oh yes, said the nice lady, the Adapazarı trains would be canceled for the next three years. When asked about alternate transportation, she said, “By bus; that has nothing to do with us.” It also developed at some point in these phone calls that none of the provinces has the authority to schedule any governmental transportation across province lines. Let’s finish by examining a little more closely what it is that no one seems to be concerned about:

The Banliyö train services about 30 stations between Gebze and Haydarpaşa, including Bostanci, Maltepe, Kartal, Pendik and Tuzla. Gebze itself is a major employee destination.  Almost all of the Banliyö passengers (remember, 26,409,000 passengers in 2010) are going to work, whether in İstanbul or one of the other towns, or returning home. Going from İstanbul, it is normal to have to stand for part of the ride, and not unheard of to stand the whole way, if one isn’t quick on his feet boarding at Haydarpaşa. We have been on the Gebze-bound train as late as 10:30 p.m., and it was crowded THEN, with exhausted waiters, day laborers and late-shift factory workers. The Haydarpaşa-bound leg is not bad when it leaves Gebze but is soon full, with standing-room only, all day every day. This train line should concern readers of this page in several ways, the primary of which is, how are these millions of people going to get to and from work when the train is canceled?

The closure of the Banliyö is due to the ongoing Marmaray Project, which will eventually connect Anatolia with European İstanbul by way of Davy Jones’ locker, right under the Bosporus. At the same time, Turkey is getting the fast trains for non-local transportation, and that entails the closures mentioned in the Today’s Zaman article that started this information trek. Between the two projects, these closures are necessary all at once. Without subjecting the reader to the grueling details from the various sources that we used, suffice it to say that in addition to the Banliyö closure, all 12 regular trains to and from Adapazarı (24 trips per day in all) will be canceled, as well as all but three trains to Eskişehir/Ankara, including the express trains for Kars, Konya, Kurtalan, Van and Iran (yes, the country). The three trains that will remain, the Başkent, Cumhuriyet and Boğaziçi Express trains, will only have one run a day to Eskişehir/Ankara; anyone going to any other part of Anatolia will have to take one of these trains and figure out the transfers with the still-operating Ankara-Wherever lines. (If you think this is complicated, try the website, and not the English one -- it doesn’t mention any closures at all!)

The plight of students

Adapazarı is a lovely agricultural town east of İzmit. Many of the students at the university in İzmit commute from Adapazarı by train, as do students from İstanbul, though from the other direction. Theirs are the most vocal complaints about the closure. The difference in student fares between bus and train is enormous, according to complaints filed online regarding the Milliyet article, as well as other sources. İstanbul, formerly TL 4.50 by train is TL 11 by bus; Adapazarı, TL 80 per year with a train pass, is TL 17 to TL 20 one way by bus. There is also a great deal of work and family travel back and forth between İstanbul and Adapazarı. I don’t have the ridership figures but take it from me, it is a very, very busy train, with its 24 trips a day usually full. (If you are ever on it and all the seats are full, ladies can usually bump a man from the space between the wall and the last seats in the car; two will fit in each space; people almost fight over these little nooks because they are much more comfortable than standing in the aisle for 1-3 hours.) The Adapazarı mayor’s office announced “only” 30 percent of Haydarpaşa passengers on the 12 trips each way originate from or terminate at Adapazarı and that there simply isn’t adequate demand.

As for the Ankara closures, those who can afford to fly to the East will no doubt increase the crowds at the airports accordingly, not to mention airport car traffic. Others will take buses. Our family has been unable to travel East together on many occasions due to lack of bus space, and that has been until now, when several eastbound trains a day from Haydarpaşa eased bus demand.

Now for the closer: Remember the humble Banliyö and its 26,409,000 commuters traveling their 924 million kilometers? IF the powers that be can get it together in time, and IF they can find the buses and put them in service, and IF they can figure out how to service the 30-plus communities currently using the train, they can do this: 26,409,000 passengers divided by 365 days = 72,353 passengers per day, divided by 54-person capacity on a big bus = 1,340 buses, per day. That’s a lot of buses, and they would have to travel more than 2010’s 924 million kilometers because they won’t have train tracks to ride on. It is a tall order, and there is no way it won’t impact the already-traffic-throttled Jewel of the Bosporus, but we have plenty of time to work on the problem.

The Adapazarı and Ankara trains will be shut down by Feb. 1, 2012; the sturdy little Banliyö will close between Feb. 1 and “the spring,” which is as close to a good answer as we could get. By the way, we finally got that information by phone from the Marmaray Project, although there isn’t a word about it on the website. If any of the information in this article is wrong, I apologize, but if you read it closely, you will know why. Be forewarned and make sure your route is still running before you go to the station; you probably won’t have to worry about missing your train.

** Of course, these are passenger figures, not actual human beings, but one person taking 20 trips or 20 people taking one trip each, it’s still 20 trips taken by a person.

*Elsie Alan lives in Gebze with her husband.