Istanbul Express

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The Istanbul Express was a long-distance train operated by the Deutsche Bundesbahn , ÖBB , Yugoslavian Railways , Bulgarian State Railways and Turkish State Railways from Munich via Salzburg , Villach , Ljubljana , Zagreb , Belgrade , Niš , Sofia and Edirne to Istanbul ( Istanbul train station Sirkeci ). For a while, the route began in Stuttgartor Frankfurt am Main. Until the construction of a direct connection from Svilengrad via Edirne to Pehlivanköy in 1971, the train also passed through Greek territory with a stop in Pithion .

history

The Istanbul Express ran for the first time in 1965 and was an express train according to the type of train . From 1991 the Istanbul-Express operated as the Skopje-Istanbul-Express with through coaches to Skopje , for the part of the train going to Istanbul newly acquired Turkish sleeping cars were used. The Hellas Express , the Acropolis and the Attica , which ran parallel to this, offered other important train connections at that time, running from Dortmund and Munich to Athens. From 1967 to 1970, from 1977 to 1979 and since 1982 in the winter months, the Istanbul Express to Yugoslavia was combined with the Hellas Express to form the Hellas Istanbul Express. The reason was the significantly lower number of travelers compared to the 1960s.

At 2,100 km, the Istanbul Express was one of the night train connections with the longest route after the Hellas Express, which operated from West Germany. Two overnight stays were planned for the route.

With the beginning of the Yugoslav wars, all of the trains mentioned, including the Skopje-Istanbul Express, initially used a detour via Vienna and Budapest to Belgrade to avoid the war zone in Slavonia . In 1993 the connection was completely discontinued.

dare

There were seated car , couchette , sleeping and baggage car of the German, Austrian, Yugoslav, Bulgarian and Turkish railway administrations used. The exact composition changed very frequently in the course of the 38-year history of the train, as did the route and the number of through coaches . The latter drove z. B. to Sarajevo , Ploce , Rijeka or Varna . Until 1982 were Bahnpostwagen carried and from 1991 car passenger coaches .

successor

Until December 2012 there was a connection from Munich via Villach, Ljubljana and Zagreb to Belgrade, from there it was necessary to change to the Balkan Express . This meant that there was only one connection from Germany with a one-time change to Istanbul. However, since December 2012 it has been necessary to use the route of the former Istanbul Express in Schwarzach-St. Veit , Belgrade and Sofia to change to different trains. Alternatively, you can get to Istanbul faster and more comfortably via Vienna and Bucharest during the season with two changes.

A privately organized motorail train ( Optima Express ) has been running several times a week from Villach to Edirne for several years .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Řazení vlaků 1988/1989 Istanbul Express. Retrieved March 25, 2011 .
  2. ↑ a b Voráč, Alfred: Istanbul Express . In: Balkanzzüge, KIRUBA Classic, issue 3/2012 . 2012, p. 58 ff .
  3. ↑ ibid. P. 62 .

literature

  • Vorac, Alfred: Istanbul-Express, in KIRUBA Classic, issue 3/2012, p. 58ff.