Turkey’s Ankara‑Samsun high‑speed rail project cuts travel time to 2.5 hours

Turkey’s Transport and Infrastructure Ministry reports that work on the 293‑km Ankara‑Samsun high‑speed rail line is over 25 % complete. The first segment, Delice‑Çorum, involves roughly 3,000 workers and 850 machines, with excavation at 88.92 % and tunnelling at 31.22 % of targets.

When finished, the line will reduce the Ankara‑Samsun journey to about 2 hours 30 minutes and, via the Konya‑Ankara connection, cut the Konya‑Samsun trip to roughly four hours. The railway is designed to carry up to 12 million passengers and 14 million tonnes of freight annually, with full completion slated for 2029.