Traffic in Istanbul
The traffic in Istanbul is the hub of road, rail and air traffic in the western part of Turkey .
Transit traffic
The Bosphorus runs through Istanbul , an important natural shipping route that connects the Mediterranean with the Black Sea . The Montreux Treaty has regulated shipping through this strait since 1936 . In 2011, 47,715 ships crossed the Bosporus. For land traffic from Europe to Asia, on the other hand, the Bosporus represents a traffic obstacle. The history of Istanbul is closely related to these conditions.
Today the European and Asian road networks are connected by three motorway bridges (including the Fatih-Sultan-Mehmet Bridge and Yavuz-Sultan-Selim Bridge ) and the Eurasia Tunnel .
In rail transport , ferries make the connection, freight wagons are transported on rail ferries . The Marmaray tunnel has enabled continuous train traffic since 2015 .
Source and destination traffic
With two airports , two long-distance bus stations , two long-distance train stations, the port and its motorway network, Istanbul is an important hub in national and international long-distance passenger and freight transport.
Road traffic
Long-distance bus routes run from Istanbul to all major cities and regions in the country as well as to some destinations in Europe and the Middle East. The Esenler bus station, with 15,000 bus movements daily in the European part of the city, is one of the largest bus stations in Europe and one of the most important transport hubs in the country and in Southeastern Europe. The 242,000 square meter area occupied by the bus station is located in the European part in the Bayrampaşa district, near the Esenler district that gives it its name.
The motorway network around Istanbul is very well developed and is constantly being expanded, but it is not able to cope with the volume of traffic. In addition to the two ring motorways O-1 , with a total length of 87 kilometers, and O-2 , with a total length of 38 kilometers, motorways lead to Edirne ( O-3 ) and Ankara ( O-4 ).
Rail transport
The railway -Fernverkehr is extremely modest for a city of this size. There were originally two long-distance train stations, of which only a few trains per day operated. One reason for this is the dominant role of bus transport in Turkey. The long-distance passenger rail transport of the Turkish state railway company Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları (TCDD) from the previous Istanbul long-distance stations has been temporarily suspended both to Europe and Asia since 2012, and has since been handled by suburban stations far outside the center.
The Sirkeci station , the historic end point of the Orient Express , was the terminus for all railway lines on the European side until 2012 . Since then, the trains have been using the suburban train station Halkali, about 25 km west of the city center. From the Sirkeci train station, the TCDD offers free shuttle buses to long-distance travelers. In long-distance traffic, there is a daily train in the direction of Bulgaria with through coaches to Bucharest in Romania, Sofia in Bulgaria and Belgrade in Serbia, another pair of trains to the border station Kapıkule on the Bulgarian border. Another train runs to Uzunköprü , the border station on the Greek border. Since 2011 there have been no more trains to Greece, and since March 19, 2012, long-distance transport to Bulgaria is no longer carried out by train due to construction work, but instead by bus as a rail replacement service.
From the Haydarpaşa train station on the Asian bank of the Bosphorus, the starting point of the historic Baghdad Railway , TCDD trains ran several times a day to Ankara , less often to other destinations in Anatolia, and once a week to Tehran and Aleppo . From 2012 to 2014 there was no train service for about 2 years due to extensive construction work between Istanbul and Ankara. Since then, long-distance trains to Ankara and Konya have started at Pendik station , around 25 km east of Istanbul city center.
The long-distance trains to Anatolia are expected to run again from Haydarpaşa from the end of 2018.
The two stations are connected by the Eminönü - Haydarpaşa passenger ferry . A railway line crosses the Bosporus through the tunnel built as part of the Marmaray project, which was completed in 2013, but has not yet been fully connected to the rest of the TCDD network. This connection is expected to go into operation from the end of 2018 and long-distance trains will then also use the tunnel. For freight transport operate until full completion train ferries .
Maritime transport
The Ambarlı Limanı is the port of Istanbul in the Avcılar district . It is the largest port in the country and took first place in 2006 in terms of the tonnage of bulk cargo handled. Around 38 percent of Turkish imports and exports and 63 percent of the Marmara region are handled in the port . He is from the ALTAŞ Ambarlı Liman Tesisleri Tic. A.Ş. which was founded on September 9, 1992. The Haydarpaşa Limanı in Kadıköy is also an important port, which is the main port in the Asian part of Istanbul with an area of 55,000 square meters. There is a train connection from the port to the nearest terminus, Haydarpaşa .
The old port on the Golden Horn is primarily used for passenger shipping . There are regular services to Haifa in Israel and Odessa in Ukraine. From Bostancı there are ferries to Bursa and Yalova .
air traffic
Istanbul has two international airports : the larger of the two is Istanbul Airport . In April 2019, it replaced Istanbul Ataturk Airport on the outskirts of the European part of the city in the Bakırköy district , 24 kilometers west of the city center, as Turkey's largest airport. The smaller one is Sabiha Gökçen Airport , 45 kilometers east of the city center in the Pendik district.
Inner-city traffic
Inner-city traffic is made more difficult by the Ottoman structure of the city and its self-contained quarters. The buildings of an Ottoman district ( Mahalle ) were grouped almost concentrically mostly around a Friday mosque. Few public driveways ( Tarîk-i âmm ) and narrow “private” streets ( Tarîk-i hâss ), often dead ends, determined the labyrinthine image. These quarters were only loosely connected.
The Bosporus also creates a special situation for inner-city traffic. It is crossed by 1.2 to 1.3 million people every day, 200,000 of whom use ferry boats, all others use one of the road bridges.
It was not until after the Second World War that wide streets and large squares were created in old Istanbul with international advice. A main axis was formed by a thoroughfare from Sultan Ahmet to beyond the land wall, which is still important today and which was consciously based on the Constantinian road system. The situation was similar in the Asian districts. More open streets, on the other hand, have always been determined by the Genoese Pera or Galata in today's Beyoğlu.
In the meantime, generous inland and thoroughfares as well as connecting roads to the districts on the periphery have been created throughout the city, whereby old buildings had to give way.
Tram and subway are gradually being expanded. These modes of transport are operated on behalf of the city administration by the local public transport companies Istanbul Ulasim and İETT , who use a uniform tariff system that also includes the Banliyö Trenleri (“suburban trains”) of the Turkish State Railways (TCDD) . However, Istanbul does not (yet) have a closed and clear local transport network. So far, the lines rarely complement each other. They are mostly designed to bring workers from the suburbs to the center. Connections between different city districts close to the center are still missing. For a closed local transport system, the underground route would have to be expanded to 505 km.
Road traffic
Buses, shared taxis ( Dolmuş ), taxis and private cars play an important role. The yellow taxis represent a large proportion of the total traffic. Since there are only a few rail routes, the city buses carry the main burden of local public transport. There are regular bus stations at important hubs, for example in Taksim, Eminönü or Beyazıt. Taksim is also the main inner-city end point for Dolmuş lines.
The bus rapid transit system Metrobüs has also been in use on a route in Istanbul since September 17, 2007 . There are currently four interlaced lines on the route around the entire city - mostly on the median of the highway: 34 Avcılar – Zincirlikuyu, 34A Edirnekapı – Söğütlüçeşme (transcontinental crossing the bridge), 34T Avcılar – Topkapı and 34B Beylikdüzü-Avcılar. The 34 is not a random line name, but a "special" number for Istanbul, as it is the district number of the city (which is used for car license plates and postcodes).
Trucks of all sizes handle the transport of goods . From time to time you can still see a porter ( Hamal ), especially on the stairs of the shopping streets between the Grand Bazaar and the Galata Bridge.
Rail transport
| Overview of public transport lines in Istanbul | |
|---|---|
| Metro : M1 A | M1 B | M2 | M3 | M4 | M5 (under construction) | M6 (under construction) | M7 (planned) | |
| Tram: T1 | T3 | T4 (Hafif Metro) | T5 (Nostaljik Tramvay) | |
| S-Bahn : Marmaray | B1 | B2 | |
| Funiculars: F1 | Tünelbahn | |
In 1997, the share of rail traffic in Istanbul was 3.6%. The Marmaray project and other expansion measures aim to raise this figure to 28%.
The S-Bahn lines (Banliyö Trenleri) run on both sides of the Bosphorus along the Marmara Sea and thus connect the coastal towns there with the Istanbul city center train stations Sirkeci on the European (route length 30 km) and Haydarpaşa on the Asian side (route length 44 km ). The commissioning of the suburban railway took place on the European side with the opening of the line from Küçükçekmece to Yedikule on January 4, 1871. The extensions from Küçükçekmece to Halkalı on April 22, 1872 and from Yedikule to the Sirkeci terminus on July 27, 1872 were made here. The Asian route was opened on September 22, 1872 on the Pendik - Feneryolu section. On January 1, 1873, it was extended out of town to Gebze and on January 1, 1873 inward to the Haydarpaşa terminus.
With the Marmaray project, S-Bahn trains have been connecting the Asian and European parts of Istanbul in an undersea tunnel since October 2013. The complete completion of the project, which also includes the expansion and connection of the existing S-Bahn lines, should take place in 2015.
The M1 underground line provides a quick connection from urban Aksaray to the airport and Esenler bus station . The 19.9 km long system was opened on March 11, 1989 on the Aksaray - Kartaltepe - Kocatepe section. From there it went on via the Esenler bus station with a branch line to Esenler (December 24, 1989) and via the main line to Zeytinburnu (January 31, 1994), to Bakırköy-Incirli (March 7, 1995), to Yenibosna (25. August 1995) and finally to the current endpoint Ataturk Havalimanı Airport (December 20, 2002). Work has been going on for a long time at the urban end of the tunnel connecting to Yenikapı. A large interchange station (Stadtbahn, U-Bahn, S-Bahn, long-distance train and Seebus) is being built there. In addition, a branch in the outer area leads west from Esenler to Kirazlı (M1 B ).
The M2 metro line between Taksim and 4th Levent opened on September 16, 2000. The 8.4 km long route was extended in both directions in 2008, to Şişhane in the south and Haçıosman in the north. The important connection from Şişhane via the Golden Horn to Yenikapı is currently under construction; it will not be operational before 2013.
The M3 metro line runs between the Kirazlı station of the M1 B metro line and the Ataturk Olympic Center and Metrokent in the Başakşehir district.
The M4 subway line opened on August 17, 2012. On the Asian side, it opens up the southeastern districts from Kadıköy to Kartal. There is a transfer point to the Metrobus at the Ünalan station. In Kadıköy you can change to the T3 tram line. In Ayrılıkçeşme, with the completion of the Marmaray project, there will be a transfer option to the network of suburban trains (Banliyö Trenleri) .
The light rail line or 'Hafif Metro' T4 . runs from Topkapı station to Vatan station, where you can change to the M1 underground line. From here, the T4 runs partly underground and largely separated from the rest of the road traffic below the Eski-Edirne-Asfaltı Boulevard to the northwestern districts of Mescid-i Selam and Habipler.
The Tünel -Bahn F2 between Karaköy and Tünel-Platz in the Beyoğlu district on the hill is a 574-meter-long underground funicular that was opened on January 12, 1875. It is the third oldest subway in the world if you consider it to be a subway.
The F1 funicular line goes from Kabataş on the Bosphorus up to Taksim Square . This ultra-modern, underground funicular was opened on June 30, 2006 and connects the endpoints, which are about half a kilometer apart, in 110 seconds.
The modern T1 tram line , also called Çağdaş-Tramvay, runs right through historic Istanbul (route length 14.3 kilometers). The opening took place on June 13, 1992 on the Beyazıt - Yusufpaşa section. Several line extensions in a row brought extensions to Sirkeci station (July 10, 1992), to the Topkapı stop directly behind the old city wall on December 29, 1992 and from there to the Zeytinburnu district (January 31, 1994). The extension from Sirkeci station to Eminönü (April 20, 1996) and then on to Kabataş also brought the connection via the new Galata Bridge to the districts north of the Golden Horn. From May 18, 2006 another T2 line ran from Zeytinburnu to Bağcılar. Since there were not enough low-floor trams available, the former "Dalan" trains were used on the route, which previously ran on the Sirkeci route and currently run on the M1 underground line between Aksaray and Havalimanı. It is planned to combine lines T1 and T2 into one continuous line T1. This then leads from Kabataş to Bağcılar.
The tram line T3 in Moda is a tram that opened on November 1, 2003 as "nostalgic" between Kadıköy and Moda in the Asian part of the city. It is a one-way, 2.6 kilometer long ring route that follows an impressive course through the hilly and narrow streets of the district. The route is operated with old Gotha tram cars from the GDR . The line designation 20 can be read on the vehicles (however, this is not a valid line designation).
The Nostaljik Tramvay is a 1.6 kilometer long, historic tram with no line name, which runs in the former Pera Street and now İstiklal Caddesi in the Beyoğlu district between Tünel Square and Taksim Square. The operation carried out with historical vehicles began on April 12, 1990.
A uniform tariff and the same payment system apply to all rail-bound local transport systems in Istanbul - whether operated by TCDD, Istanbul ulasim or İETT.
Maritime transport
There is a lot of shipping traffic between the European and Asian districts. Car ferries and passenger ships cross the Bosphorus at frequent intervals. The most important ferry terminals are in Bakırköy, Eminönü, Karaköy and Besiktaş on the European side and in Beykoz, Kadıköy, Kartal, Maltepe and Üsküdar on the Asian side. There are regular ferries every day between the three Prince Islands Büyükada , Heybeliada and Kınalıada and the Bostancı district in the Kadıköy district. The ferries are operated by the companies İstanbul Deniz Otobüsleri A.Ş. (IDO fast ferries) and İstanbul Şehir Hatlari .
Individual evidence
- ↑ bosphorus-strait-news (monthly statistics, English)
- ↑ Timetable , TCDD, accessed on September 10, 2012
- ↑ a b c d www.seat61.com: Train Travel in Turkkey , accessed on August 29, 2018
- ↑ Timetable Europe , TCDD, accessed on September 10, 2012
- ↑ Overview of routes in Turkish rail traffic , TCDD, accessed on April 15, 2007
- ↑ Timetable for Train Connections to the Middle East , TCDD, accessed April 15, 2007
- ↑ Timetable Asia , TCDD, accessed on September 10, 2012
- ↑ Melting Pot Bosporus (documentary, 2009)
- ↑ cnnturk.com: Istanbul has opened a metro , accessed January 15, 2007 (Turkish)
- ↑ a b c d e istanbululasim.net , accessed June 30, 2009
- ↑ Marmaray Project (official website, English) ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
