Baku is hosting the 11th session of the coordination council for rehabilitation, reconstruction and construction of the Marabda-Kartsakhi (Turkish border) railway line within the project of the new Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line, Trend reports.
The session will hold talks on the rehabilitation, reconstruction and construction of the Tetriskaro-Tsalka and Tsalka-Akhalkalaki railways.
It will also consider adjustments to expenditure on the Akhalkalaki-Karstakhi railway line, presented by the Azerinshaatservice.
The sides will discuss construction of the Akhalkalaki railway station.
Azerbaijan and Georgia will consider use of Spanish high-speed trains, produced by TALGO, on the Baku-Tbilisi-Istanbul line.
They will approve a new budget for the Marabda-Kartsakhi Railway Company for 2011.
via High-speed trains may be used on Baku-Tbilisi-Istanbul railway line | Vestnik Kavkaza.
Transportation Minister Mehmet Habib Soluk has announced that the Ankara-İstanbul high-speed train line will cross the third bridge to be built on İstanbul’s Bosporus.
Mehmet Habib Soluk (R) attended a program on a train with State Minister Cemiş Çiçek (C) in Ankara.
Mehmet Habib Soluk (R) attended a program on a train with State Minister Cemiş Çiçek (C) in Ankara.
Soluk told the Anatolia news agency that the line running north of Sakarya’s Lake Sapanca will split in İstanbul’s Sultanbeyli district, on the city’s Asian side. From there, one branch will connect to the Marmaray rail tunnel and the other will go over the third bridge planned for construction in the vicinity of Garipçe on the European side and Beykoz’s Poyrazköy district on the Asian side.
Recalling that the third bridge will be built as part of the North Marmara Highway Project, Soluk said it would include both a highway and a rail line. More details will be released after the project is awarded in a tender this summer, he noted.
“We will soon finalize the issue after discussing it with the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality,” he added.
Soluk also stated that the ongoing construction of the Eurasia Tunnel, an İstanbul strait under-seabed tunnel that would connect the Asian and European sides of İstanbul at the Harem and Sarayburnu districts of the city, will ease İstanbul’s traffic problems when it is completed in about three-and-a-half years.
Speaking about the uncompleted metro lines in the capital city of Ankara, Soluk said the construction has been undertaken by the Ministry of Transportation following an agreement signed by the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and the ministry, adding that the metro construction projects are included in the state’s investment program under the authority of the Cabinet. “It is impossible to complete construction on all of these lines at the same time because of differences in progress and the lengths of the lines. We aim to finish the Ankara metros within two years. Construction may start in September,” Soluk said.
Turkey got its first high-speed trains back in November 2007. It’s state railway company (TCDD) was the 8th in the world to operate high-speed trains (and the 6th in Europe). News now is that the country has just started testing out some bullet trains. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended an inaugural run on December 17th. Testing of these bullet trains is expected to finish in the summer of 2011 and then they will be officially launched for use on Turkish high-speed rail lines.
Meanwhile, over in Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has just announced that Russia, which was recently selected to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup (beating out England, Spain/Portugal, and Holland/Belgium for this great opportunity), will have high-speed rail connecting all of its host cities by 2018.
“It will be a powerful incentive for the development of high speed rail services in the European part of Russia,” Putin said.
The host cities that high-speed trains will be running back and forth between are Moscow, Kazan, Samara, and Ulyanovsk.
Putin made this announcement after trying out a new high-speed train from Finland to Russia. He and Finnish President Tarja Halonen got to go on “an inaugural journey on the French-made high speed Allegro train linking Helsinki to St. Petersburg” last week.
It is great to see the world moving forward on this clean, fun transportation technology. High-speed rail uses uses 1/3 the energy of airplanes (per passenger) and 1/5 the energy of automobiles (per passenger).
via High-Speed Trains in Russia and Turkey – EcoLocalizer.
