Ankara railway station ( tr, Ankara Garı) is the main

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

, Turkey, and is a major transportation hub within the city. The station is the eastern terminus of the Istanbul-Ankara railway corridor, as well as the easternmost station in Turkey with high-speed rail service. Ankara station is also a hub for YHT high-speed trains, with its own exclusive platforms and concourse. TCDD Taşımacılık also operates intercity train service to Kars,

Tatvan Tatvan ( ) is a city on the western shore of Lake Van. It is the chief city of Tatvan District within Bitlis Province in eastern Turkey, and has about 96,000 inhabitants. The current Mayor is Mehmet Emin Geylani ( AKP). The district is fully Kurd ...

and Kurtalan as well as Başkentray commuter rail service. Located within the historic Ulus quarter, the station is a landmark of the city. In 2016, a new building was opened above the YHT platforms known as

Ankara Tren Garı Ankara Tren Garı ("Ankara Train Station"), alternatively known as Ankara YHT railway station ( tr, Ankara Yüksek Hızlı Tren Garı) and abbreviated as ATG, is a mixed-use commercial building in Ankara, Turkey. The building houses a shopping ...

(ATG). The ATG building serves as a hub for high-speed rail with its own concourse containing information and tickets booths, waiting rooms and a VIP lounge, and is connected to the rest of the station via a skybridge.

History

Ottoman Empire period (1892–1922)

The original builder, the

Chemins de Fer Ottomans d'Anatolie The Chemins de Fer Ottomans d'Anatolie ( tr, Osmanlı Anadolu Demiryolları, en, Anatolian Railway), founded on 4 October 1888, was a railway company that operated in the Ottoman Empire.Turkish Nationalists Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and ...

captured Ankara and parts of the CFOA. During the

Turkish Independence War The Turkish War of Independence "War of Liberation", also known figuratively as ''İstiklâl Harbi'' "Independence War" or ''Millî Mücadele'' "National Struggle" (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns waged by th ...

, CFOA transported troops from Ankara, as the newly named capital of Turkey, to the front near

Eskişehir Eskişehir ( , ; from "old" and "city") is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 898,369 with a metropolitan population of 797,708. The city is located on the banks of the ...

.CFOA History
- Trains of Turkey CFOA History

Turkish Republic period (1922–present)

After the Turkish independence war ended, the passenger train services from Istanbul to Ankara resumed. The CFOA, now under Turkish control, finally opened the line to Kayseri and Ankara was no longer the terminus. CFOA was then acquired by the

Turkish State Railways The State Railways of the Republic of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları), abbreviated as TCDD, is a government-owned national railway company responsible with the ownership and maintenance of railway infrastructure in Turkey ...

(TCDD) on June 1, 1927, and Ankara station was placed under TCDD control. In 1927 the

Anatolian Express The Anatolian Express ( tr, Anadolu Ekspresi, french: Anatolie Express) is one of the four direct train services operating between İstanbul and Ankara. The train is an overnight train consisting of eight sleeping cars and one dining car A dinin ...

was inaugurated as a premier overnight train from Istanbul to Ankara operated by the

Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits Newrest Wagons-Lits, formerly (lit. ''International Sleeping-Car Company''), also CIWL, Compagnie des Wagons-Lits, or just Wagons-Lits, is a division of particularly known for its on-train catering and sleeping car services, as well as being ...

(CIWL). The current

Art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

building was built in 1937 by Turkish architect

Şekip Akalın Sabri Şekip Akalın (1910–1976) was a Turkish architect and engineer. His most famous building is the Art-deco Ankara railway station, which was built between 1935–37. Aside from architecture, he also worked at the Ministry of Public Works, T ...

. As TCDD completed rail lines to other cities, new train services from Ankara such as the

9th of September Express The 9th of September Express ( tr, 9 Eylül Ekspresi) was an overnight train, operated by the Turkish State Railways, from Basmane Terminal, İzmir to Ankara Central Station, Ankara. The name of the service refers to 9 September 1922, the date on w ...

(1939) to Izmir, the

Eastern Express The Eastern Express ( tr, Doğu Ekspresi) is an overnight passenger train operated by the Turkish State Railways. The train runs from Ankara Railway Station to Kars Railway Station in Kars. The train was the first overnight service east of Anka ...

(1939) to Kars, and the Southern Express (1944) to

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

and Kurtalan made Ankara station one of the busiest stations in Turkey. In 1972, the station, along with the track between Sincan and Kayaş, were electrified with

25 kV AC Railway electrification systems using alternating current (AC) at are used worldwide, especially for high-speed rail. It is usually supplied at the standard utility frequency (typically 50 or 60Hz), which simplifies traction substations. The dev ...

catenary In physics and geometry, a catenary (, ) is the curve that an idealized hanging chain or cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends in a uniform gravitational field. The catenary curve has a U-like shape, superfici ...

for the

Ankara Suburban Railway Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

. In 1993 the Istanbul-Ankara line was fully electrified. In 2009 a high-speed train service operated from Ankara to Eskişehir. The

2015 Ankara bombings On 10 October 2015 at 10:04 local time (EEST) in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, two bombs were detonated outside Ankara Central railway station. With a death toll of 109 civilians, the attack surpassed the 2013 Reyhanlı bombings as the ...

occurred on 10 October 2015 at 10:04 local time (

EEST Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes it ...

) in

. Two bombs were detonated outside the entrance of the Ankara Central railway station, killing more than 105 and injuring more than 400 people. The attack is the deadliest of its kind in Turkey's modern history. Ankara Central Station 2012 04

The

TCDD Open Air Steam Locomotive Museum The TCDD Open Air Steam Locomotive Museum ( tr, TCDD Açık Hava Buharlı Lokomotif Müzesi) is a railroad museum in Ankara, Turkey, which focuses on the history of steam locomotives that operated on the Turkish State Railways. The museum was ori ...

was opened next to the station in the 1990's, but was relocated in 2014 due to the construction of the Ankara Tren Garı.

Operations

Ankara station has generally been the exchange point between train services in the west and in the east, although trains to the far east of Turkey would originate from Istanbul until 2011. With the exception of commuter rail service, all trains either originate or terminate at the station, continuing Ankara's role as a rail hub in Turkey. TCDD Taşımacılık (TCDDT) operates mainline intercity trains (mostly overnight service) west to

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

and

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban aggl ...

and east to Kars,

and Kurtalanalong with regional service to

Polatlı Polatlı (formerly Ancient Greek: Γόρδιον, Górdion and Latin: Gordium) is a city and a district in Ankara Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey, 80 km west of the Turkish capital Ankara, on the road to Eskişehir. Accordi ...

. Since the opening of Turkey's first high-speed railway in 2009, Ankara has become the main hub for high-speed trains in the country. High-speed

Yüksek Hızlı Tren Yüksek Hızlı Tren or YHT ( en, High Speed Train) is a high-speed rail service in Turkey, operated by TCDD Taşımacılık, and is the railway's premier intercity train service. As of 2022, the network spans and services major cities like ...

(YHT) service operates frequent service to Istanbul, via

, and

Konya Konya () is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium (), although the Seljuks also called it ...

. However, service is expected to increase with the opening of the high-speed railway to

Sivas Sivas (Latin and Greek: ''Sebastia'', ''Sebastea'', Σεβάστεια, Σεβαστή, ) is a city in central Turkey and the seat of Sivas Province. The city, which lies at an elevation of in the broad valley of the Kızılırmak river, is ...

and

Karaman Karaman, historically known as Laranda (Greek: Λάρανδα), is a city in south central Turkey, located in Central Anatolia, north of the Taurus Mountains, about south of Konya. It is the capital district of the Karaman Province. According t ...

towards the end of 2021, with future service to

Afyonkarahisar Afyonkarahisar (, tr, afyon "poppy, opium", ''kara'' "black", ''hisar'' "fortress") is a city in western Turkey, the capital of Afyon Province. Afyon is in the mountainous countryside inland from the Aegean coast, south-west of Ankara along t ...

and İzmir expected to begin in 2023.

Tracks

Ankara station has 6 platforms with 13 tracks. The station platforms are divided into three areas, each hosting different train service. The platforms are connected via a skybridge. *Tracks 1-3 are used for intercity and regional service. Intercity trains to Istanbul, İzmir, Kars, Tatvan and Kurtalan along with regional trains to Polatlı arrive and depart from these tracks. A side platform and an island platform allow access to the tracks. *Tracks 4-5 are used for freight trains passing through Ankara, along with the occasional equipment move from Marşandiz Yard. Freight trains run mostly at night or late evening with some service mid-day. This is done to minimize interference with passenger rail service. *Tracks 6-7 are for Başkentray commuter service to Sincan and Kayaş. An island platform services both tracks however access to this platform requires the payment of a fare, using the ''AnkaraKart''. *Tracks 8-13 are exclusively for high-speed train service. These tracks are also indoors as they sit underneath the Ankara Tren Garı building. Platforms here connect directly into the high-speed rail concourse, however the rest of Ankara station can be accessed via the skybridge.

One of Turkey's top 50 civil engineering projects

The Turkish Chamber of Civil Engineers lists Ankara Central Station as one of the fifty civil engineering feats in Turkey, a list of remarkable engineering projects realized in the first 50 years of the chamber.The list

Pictures

Ankara station platforms.jpg, Looking east at the platforms Ankara asv2021-10 img18 Railway station.jpg, Looking west at the platforms Ankara station platforms 3.jpg, View of the Art Deco building trackside YHT train at Ankara railway station.jpg, A high-speed train on the tracks below the ATG building Ankara asv2021-10 img21 Railway station.jpg, Clock tower next to the station

References

External links

TCDD History: Electrification
''Trains of Turkey''
CFOA - Chemins de Fer Ottomans d'Anatolie
''Trains of Turkey'' {{Fifty civil engineering feats in Turkey Railway stations in Ankara Province Art Deco architecture in Turkey Railway stations opened in 1892 Buildings and structures in Ankara Railway stations opened in 1937 Art Deco railway stations Rail transport in Ankara 1937 establishments in Turkey