Halkalı railway station

Halkalı
Location	İstansyon Cd, Küçükçekmece, İstanbul
Owned by	Turkish State Railways
Platforms	2
Tracks	4
Construction
Structure type	At-grade
History
Opened	July 22, 1872
Rebuilt	1955
Electrified	1955
Services
Preceding station   Turkish State Railways   Following station Terminus İstanbul-Halkalı Line Kanarya toward Sirkeci

Halkalı railway station is the westernmost station on the İstanbul-Halkalı Line as well as in İstanbul. The station also services regional trains to Edirne, Uzunköprü, Çerkezköy and international trains to Bucharest and Belgrade. The distance of the Halkalı station to the Istanbul Sirkeci Terminal is 27.63 km (17.17 mi).

Overview

The Halkalı logistics center and the historic Halkalı electric train maintenance depot is located near the station. The station is located next to Lake Küçükçekmece and services the population in north-central Küçükçekmece. Just a little north of the station will be a depot for commuter trains once the Marmaray project is complete.

The terminal has been the departure terminal for all freight trains to Europe and became a very important container terminal. It has been used by rail container lines IFB, Express Interfracht, Europe Intermodal and Metrans. It was closed to railway traffic in June 2013 due to construction works between Çerkezköy and Halkalı.^[1] Construction work officially began in March 2014 and was said to last for 75 days.^[2] However, construction works extended which already postponed opening to 2015. There's also a project under discussion to extend Marmaray to Ispartakule, which may cause further construction works and closures in the future.^[3][4]

As Halkalı is now surrounded by residential areas due to growth of city, the role of being the main export customs for trucks to Europe is about to end. Trucks will use the new customs office in Catalca soon. Thus, Halkalı will have a large space to for further projects. Halkalı is expected to be the main high speed train station in European side of Istanbul after railway connection via new Bosphorus bridge is completed.

In June 2013, DB Schenker Rail announced a new freight route, with three trains per week between Germany and the Halkalı logistics center.^[5] However, since Halkali had not opened as planned, trials had been done using Cerkezkoy Terminal, and did not continue.^[6]

Service

Previous	Turkish State Railways	Next
Sirkeci Terminus	Bosphorus Express	Alpullu toward Bucharest
Sirkeci Terminus	Balkans Express	Alpullu toward Belgrade
Sirkeci Terminus	İstanbul-Uzunköprü Regional	Çatalca toward Uzunköprü
Bakırköy toward Sirkeci	İstanbul-Kapıkule Regional	Ispartakule toward Kapıkule
Bakırköy toward Sirkeci	İstanbul-Çerkezköy Regional	Ispartakule toward Çerkezköy
Kanarya toward Sirkeci	İstanbul-Halkalı Commuter Line	Terminus

References

1. Uysal, Onur. "Holiday Time for Halkali", Rail Turkey, 19 April 2013
2. Uysal, Onur. "Halkali Opening Not Before Summer", Rail Turkey, 12 March 2014
3. Uysal, Onur. "Halkali Opening may be Postponed", Rail Turkey, 25 September 2014
4. Uysal, Onur. "What Will Happen in Turkish Railways in 2015?", Rail Turkey, 1 January 2015
5. "DB Schenker introduces freight shuttle to Turkey". Railway Gazette International. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
6. Uysal, Onur. "Great Openings, Deep Disappointments in Railway", Rail Turkey, 2 October 2013

Coordinates: 41°01′08″N 28°46′00″E / 41.01889°N 28.76667°E