Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu: With the projects we have planned within the scope of the Transport and Logistics Master Plan, we aim to increase the share of railways in land transportation from 5 percent to 11 percent in the first place. We continue the construction of a total of 4 kilometers, of which 7 kilometers are high-speed trains and 357 kilometers are conventional lines.
Karaismailoğlu: We save 770 million dollars every year with our railway investments.
The 2022 Budget of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure was discussed at the General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Speaking at the General Assembly, Karaismailoğlu made evaluations about the railway sector.
“We are working to shift 5 percent of the annual 30 thousand block train to Europe via the China-Russia (Siberia) line, which is designated as the northern line, to Turkey.”
Touching on railway investments in his speech, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu said:
“We started the railway reform in the railways that were neglected for more than half a century. In addition to the new line construction, we also renewed the existing conventional lines. We implemented the domestic and national signaling project. For the first time in railways, we started to produce railway vehicles and equipment with domestic designs. We built a total of 213 thousand 2 kilometers of new lines, of which 149 kilometers is YHT. We increased our railway network to 12 kilometers. We increased our signaled lines by 803 percent and our electrified lines by 172 percent. The Middle Corridor starts from Beijing, passes through Turkey and reaches Europe. Our export trains going to China via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Iron Silk Road by using Marmaray from Europe play an important role in international trade. We are working to shift 188 percent of the annual 5 thousand block train to Europe via China-Russia (Siberia), which is designated as the northern line, to Turkey. We aim to increase the capacity of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway to 30 million passengers and 2024 million tons of freight by the end of 3.
“Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, which has more than one critical economic value for Turkey, will once again integrate the two continents with railway transportation.”
Karaismailoğlu continued his words as follows:
“With the projects we plan within the scope of the Transport and Logistics Master Plan, we aim to increase the share of railways in land transportation from 5 percent to 11 percent in the first place. We continue the construction of a total of 4 kilometers, of which 7 kilometers are high-speed trains and 357 kilometers are conventional lines. We will put the Karaman-Konya high-speed train line into operation soon. Ankara-Sivas, Ankara-Izmir, Halkalı-Our work continues on Kapikule, Bursa-Yenişehir-Osmaneli, Mersin - Adana - Gaziantep, Karaman - Ulukışla, Aksaray - Ulukışla - Mersin - Yenice High Speed Train Lines. In addition, we have completed the planning of the tender works for our Ankara - Yozgat (Yerköy) - Kayseri High Speed Train Line. Gebze-Sabiha Gökçen Airport- Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge-Istanbul Airport- Çatalca-Halkalı There is a High Speed Train Project. Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, which has more than one critical economic value for Turkey, will once again integrate the two continents with railway transportation.”
“As part of our logistics activities, we connect our railways to ports and airports”
Noting that they will continue their railway investments in order to reduce the logistics cost of the manufacturing sector and increase exports, Karaismailoğlu underlined that this is a mobilization. Minister Karaismailoğlu stated that they continue to improve their conventional lines as well as high-speed train projects where passenger and freight transportation will be carried out together, and continued his speech as follows:
“As part of our logistics activities, we connect our railways to ports and airports. We increased the share of railways in our investments to 48 percent. We will increase it to 2023 percent in 63. Our 2021 freight transport target on railways is 36,5 million tons. In 2023, we will reach over 50 million tons. Turkey has a significant trade volume in regional freight transportation, and we will further increase this potential by building logistics centers. Along with the international and national railway business, we, as the Ministry, are also establishing rail public transportation systems with high standards in our cities. To date, we have completed a total of 313,7 kilometers of urban rail system lines and put them into the service of our nation. 990 million passengers have been transported so far with the metros we have implemented in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Kocaeli and Antalya. We saved 305 million hours of time and 282 thousand tons of fuel. We have achieved a reduction of 156 thousand tons in carbon emissions. Currently, we have 6 projects under construction in 10 more provinces. When these projects are completed, we will save 11 million hours of time and 146 thousand tons of fuel, as well as contributing 136 billion TL per year to our economy.”
“The national electric train will be on the rails in 2022”
Karaismailoğlu stated that they continue to work on the rail system in various cities, and said:
“We have made TÜRASAŞ, where different parts of the rail system vehicles in our country are made, the largest rail system vehicle manufacturer in the Middle East. We have completed the test processes of the National Electric Train set, which has a speed of 160 kilometers per hour. In 2022, the national electric train will be on the rails. We have also completed the design work of the Train Set Project at a speed of 225 km/h. We plan to complete the prototype in 2022 and start mass production in 2023. In our planning until 2035, our railway vehicle requirement is 17,4 billion Euros. Accordingly, we carry out our production plans. By 2035, reducing emissions from railways by at least 75 percent is also our most important agenda. We save 770 million dollars every year with our railway investments. By preparing the Railway Energy and Climate Change Action Plan, we determine and implement strategies to reduce carbon emissions. Taking into account the Logistics Master Plan, on the one hand, we are developing business models to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our railway network and logistics centers, and on the other hand, we are working to increase the railway line length to 28 thousand 590 kilometers.
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