Turkey’s first driverless metro starts serving

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s first automated urban metro system was launched on Dec. 15 in Istanbul, the country’s largest city.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım inaugurated the first phase of the Üsküdar-Sancaktepe metro line on the Asian side of the city.

The president, accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdağ, Transportation Minister Ahmet Arslan and Energy Minister Berat Albayrak along with other officials, arrived in Ümraniye from the Üsküdar station on the first driverless metro.

Some 10.5 kilometers of the 20-kilometer-long metro line from Üsküdar to Ümraniye has been opened, while the remaining part will be launched in June 2018.

The full-length line consists of 16 stations and will carry 700,000 passengers per day when it is completely functional.

The line will be integrated with two major mass transportation lines - the Metrobus land road and the Marmaray subway - which connect the Asian and European sides of the city.