Ferry, train transport booms on Eid holiday in Turkey

ANKARA/ISTANBUL - Anadolu Agency

İDO transported around 1 million passengers over the five-day holiday.

Vacationers filled sea, land and air transport during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, rushing to top holiday spots around the country as both the largest ferry and train companies joined Istanbul airports in reporting record occupancy rates.

Istanbul Fast Ferries Company (İDO) said today that it had carried around 1 million passengers and 180,000 vehicles over the five-day holiday.

The passenger total, which is 40 percent higher than last year’s Eid al-Fitr holiday, marks a record for the ferry company.

Fast ferries are preferred by many passengers and car owners for easier and faster transportation between several ports on the Marmara Sea.

İDO had to introduce 230 additional trips to keep up with the occupancy and to prevent congestion on the roads between Aug. 7 and 11, it said in a statement.

High-speed trains also drew higher-than-usual demand during the holiday, Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım said yesterday. “Six hundred sixty trains carried 60,000 passengers safely during the holiday,” he said.
Turkey has been moving to expand its much-neglected railway network, and according to Yılıdırm, the general transportation trend this holiday proved how right of the government’s decision was.

Both Istanbul airports, Atatürk and Sabiha Gökçen, had also said Aug. 12 that they broke their all-time air traffic records on the last day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday as the number of flights totaled 1,798, bringing in 216,200 passengers.