Ankara railway station

Ankara Garı
TCDD railway terminal
Coordinates	39°56′11″N 32°50′38″E / 39.9364°N 32.8438°ECoordinates: 39°56′11″N 32°50′38″E / 39.9364°N 32.8438°E
Owned by	Turkish State Railways
Line(s)	Yüksek Hızlı Tren Fatih Express Ankara Express Anatolia Express Boğaziçi Express Karesi Express İzmir Blue Train Çukurova Blue Train Eastern Express Van Lake Express Southern Express
Platforms	6
Tracks	8
Connections	EGO Bus, ANKARAY
Construction
Structure type	At-grade
Parking	Yes
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Station code	2503
History
Opened	1892
Rebuilt	1937
Electrified	1972 (25 kV AC)

The Ankara Central Station (Turkish: Ankara Garı) is the central train station in Ankara. The station is the busiest in Turkey, serving 181 trains daily.^[1] It is a major hub for inbound and outbound trains. There is an Ankara Metro station at its vicinity. The Ankara Central Station is situated at the end of the Istanbul-Ankara rail corridor and is the eastern terminus of the Ankara-Istanbul high-speed railway. Designed in the Art Deco style, the current terminal building was inaugurated in 1937.

History

Ottoman Empire period (1892–1922)

The original builder of the station was the Chemins de Fer Ottomans d'Anatolie (CFOA). The original station was built in 1892 by the CFOA as the eastern terminus of the railway. The original station was a small building with just one platform. The first passenger train was a daily service from Ankara to Istanbul. The station did not see much traffic, like the CFOA Eskişehir-Konya line, because Ankara was not an economically important city at the time. CFOA intended to continue the line east towards Kayseri, but they only built a narrow gauge line to Irmak.^[2] When World War I broke out in 1914, the CFOA played a major role in transporting troops and war materials to the fronts in Palestine and Mesopotamia. Therefore, between 1914 and 1918 the Ankara station had no passenger service and very little freight service. The CFOA fell under British military control after the War, but the Turkish Nationalists captured Ankara and parts of the CFOA. During the Turkish Independence War, CFOA transported troops from Ankara, as the newly named capital of Turkey, to the front near Eskişehir.^[2]

Turkish Republic period (1922–present)

View of 19 May Square and the Ankara Railway Station taken in the 1940s

After the Turkish independence war ended, the passenger train services from Istanbul to Ankara resumed. The CFOA, now under Turkish control, finally opened the line to Kayseri and Ankara was no longer the terminus. CFOA was then acquired by the Turkish State Railways (TCDD) on June 1, 1927 and Ankara station was placed under TCDD control.^[3] In 1927 the Anatolian Express was inaugurated as a premier overnight train from Istanbul to Ankara operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL).^[4] The current Art deco building was built in 1937 by German architects. As TCDD completed rail lines to other cities, new train services from Ankara such as the 9th of September Express (1939) to Izmir, the Eastern Express (1939) to Kars, and the Southern Express (1944) to Diyarbakır and Kurtalan made Ankara station one of the busiest stations in Turkey. In 1972, the station, along with the track between Sincan and Kayaş, were electrified with 25 kV AC catenary for the Ankara Suburban Railway. In 1993 the Istanbul-Ankara line was fully electrified. In the 1990s TCDD opened a steam museum next to the station. In 2009 a high-speed train service operated from Ankara to Eskişehir.

The 2015 Ankara bombings occurred on 10 October 2015 at 10:04 local time (EEST) in Ankara. Two bombs were detonated outside the entrance of the Ankara Central railway station, killing more than 105 and injuring more than 400 people.^[5][6] The attack is the deadliest of its kind in Turkey's modern history.^[7]

Service

A TCDD HT65000 at the Ankara Central Station

A TCDD HT65000 at the Ankara Central Station

Previous	Turkish State Railways	Next
Sincan Toward Istanbul	Yüksek Hızlı Tren	Terminus
Sincan Toward Konya	Yüksek Hızlı Tren	Terminus
Sincan Toward İzmir	İzmir Blue Train	Terminus
Terminus	Van Lake Express	Kayaş Toward Tatvan
Terminus	Eastern Express	Kayaş Toward Kars
Terminus	Southern Express	Kayaş Toward Kurtalan
Terminus	Trans-Asia Express	Kayseri Toward Tehran
Terminus	Central Anatolian Blue Train	Kayaş Toward Konya
Terminus	Çukurova Express	Kayaş Toward Adana
Terminus	4th of September Blue Train	Kayaş Toward Malatya
Marşandiz Terminus	Ankara-Kırıkkale Regional	Kayaş Toward Kırıkkale
Hipodrom Toward Polatlı	Ankara-Polatlı Regional	Terminus
Hipodrom Toward Sincan	Sincan-Kayaş Commuter Line	Yenişehir Towards Kayaş

Layout

Ankara High Speed Train Station Construction Site

The station has 6 long platforms: 4 for long distance trains and 2 for commuter trains.

A new station is currently under construction in Ankara; it will serve the new high-speed lines that are being built in Turkey.^[8]

One of Turkey's top 50 civil engineering projects

Turkish Chamber of Civil Engineers lists Ankara Central Station as one of the fifty civil engineering feats in Turkey, a list of remarkable engineering projects realized in the first 50 years of the chamber.^[9]

See also

• 2015 Ankara bombings

References

1. TCDD Timetables - TCDD Ankara Timetables
2. CFOA History - Trains of Turkey CFOA History
3. TCDD History -Trains of Turkey TCDD History
4. The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Steam & Rail - By Colin Garratt and Max Wade-Matthews, page 397
5. Melvin, Don. "At least 105 killed in twin bombings near train station in Turkey's capital". cnn.com. CNN.
6. "Ölü Sayısı 105'e Yükseldi" (in Turkish). TTB. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
7. "BBC: Ankara explosions leave more than 80 dead – officials". BBC News. October 10, 2015. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
8. Privatizations & Upcoming PPP-Projects in Turkey Page 28 www.joi.or.jp
9. The list (Turkish)

External links

• http://www.trainsofturkey.com/w/pmwiki.php/History/TCDD#toc9
• http://www.trainsofturkey.com/w/pmwiki.php/History/CFOA