Delayed high-speed railway line to open July 25

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

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The long-awaited high-speed railway line between Turkey’s capital Ankara and its largest city Istanbul will be officially opened by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on July 25, Transport Minister Lütfi Elvan announced July 8.

“It will open on July 25, any kind of delay is out of the question,” Elvan told Anadolu Agency.
The new line is expected to cut almost 40 percent of travel time between Ankara and Istanbul, with the journey down to 3.5 hours.

Originally planned to be operational in May, the project has been delayed by several months due to several “sabotage” attempts, according to Elvan.

There are currently three high-speed rail lines in Turkey between Ankara, Konya and Eskisehir, all Central Anatolian provinces.

Turkish State Railways had announced in January that it would invest almost half of its 2014 budget (1.8 billion Turkish Liras) in high-speed trains, as part of a wide array of construction projects planned for the centenary of the Turkish Republic’s founding in 2023.