New tramline to connect central Istanbul districts

ISTANBUL

The Istanbul Municipality council approved a project for a new tramline, which is envisioned to connect three districts of the city’s Asian side.

Named “AnadoluTRAM” previously, the new tramline is designed to link the districts of Üsküdar, Kadıköy and Maltepe, with the proposal confirmed by majority of votes in the council held by the municipality on June 11.

The project, expected to be installed within 17 months, will endorse the improvement of traffic flow, as the minibuses occupying the road from Kadıköy to Maltepe will be abolished and the line full of parked cars will no longer pose an obstacle.

According to the joint report of the Traffic and Transportation Commission and Public Works and Reconstruction Committee, it is envisioned that wheeled vehicles would be removed from traffic on the line route and street arrangements would be carried out with a great emphasis on pedestrian priority.

Expected to be 21.3 kilometers long and consist of 33 stops, the line will start from the Üsküdar Square, extending to the Kadıköy dock and on to the district of Maltepe.

The new line will carry presumably 198,964 passengers in 2027, 277,302 in 2040 and 312,356 in 2050, planning to be integrated with the newly designed Yenidoğan-Söğütlüçeşme metro line and with Marmaray at the Söğütlüçeşme stop.

With the project's feasibility study earlier completed, the tramline will have a connection with the two other main metro lines, Ümraniye-Ataşehir-Göztepe and Dudullu-Bostancı.