First freight train from Pakistan to Turkey arrives after decade hiatus

ANKARA

The first freight train service from Pakistan to Turkey after a decade-long hiatus was completed as a train full of 150 tons of pink Himalayan salt arrived in the capital Ankara on Jan. 4 in 13 days.

The journey will end in Istanbul after completing a 6,566-kilometer railway route.

Turkey-Iran-Pakistan container freight train services were halted in 2010. After a decade, the first train from Turkey headed to Pakistan on March 4, 2020.

“Our second train carrying 525 tons of soapstone departed from Pakistan, heading to Turkey on Dec. 28, 2021,” Imtiaz Ahmed, the director of Pakistan’s Railway System, said.

“The preparations for the third train service are ongoing,” he added.

The railway line, which links Islamabad, Tehran and Istanbul, aims at connecting members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) to each other.

Some 2,500 kilometers of the railway pass through Iranian territories.