Signalling & telecoms
Istanbul’s Bosphorus rail link to open next year
Just over a year from now the first trains will start to carry passengers under the Bosphorus, linking the Asian and European sides of Istanbul by rail for the first time. It will also be the world’s first rail link to combine CBTC and ERTMS on one line, reports David Briginshaw from Istanbul.
Aerial view of the Bosphorus from the Asian side showing Üsküdar station during the excavation phase.
city’s raison d’être and a major source of trade and wealth, but it also splits the city in two. While two road bridges span this very busy waterway, they are upstream from the city centre, and are often choked by Istanbul’s appalling road traffic. A contract for a third bridge was awarded on May 30, but this will be constructed at the northern end of the Bosphorus. Meanwhile many of Istanbul’s 13 million inhabitants depend on a multiplicity of ferries - including a small train ferry for freight - to cross from one side to the other. But relief is finally at hand, as next year the first phase of the so-called Marmaray rail project will be
T IRJ August 2012
HE Bosphorus has been the making and in some senses the breaking of Istanbul. It is the
completed. On October 29 2013 - the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish republic - the 13.3km rail tunnel under the Bosphorus and city will open for business. A shuttle service is envisaged between Kazilicesme, Yenikapi and Sirkeci on the European side and Üsküdar on the Asian side until the rest of the project is completed. The Marmaray project will provide Istanbul with a modern high-capacity 76.3km railway linking Halkali in the west with Gebze in the east, knitting Istanbul’s diverse collection of tram, light rail, light and heavy metro lines together to form an integrated network. The project involves rebuilding and upgrading Turkish State Railways’ (TCDD) existing lines on each side of the Bosphorus and
connecting them with the tunnel. Work on the $US 3bn scheme started
in August 2004 and was divided into three main elements. The Bosphorus crossing contract covers the construction of the tunnel which comprises a 1.4km immersed tube under the seabed, 9.8km of bored tunnels under the land plus some sections of cut-and-cover tunnelling, and the new underground stations. A surface station has since been added to the project at Ibrahimaga to provide an interchange with the Kadiköy - Kartal metro line, which passes beneath the Marmary line, and is due to open soon. Tunnelling was completed last year and track-laying is now underway. To prevent flooding, two sets of gates connected to an interlocking are
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