The Adapazarı Express ( tr, Adapazarı Ekspresi) officially listed as the Haydarpaşa-Adapazarı Regional ( tr, Haydarpaşa-Adapazarı Bölgeseli) was a

regional rail Regional rail, also known as local trains and stopping trains, are passenger rail services that operate between towns and cities. These trains operate with more stops over shorter distances than inter-city rail, but fewer stops and faster ser ...

service, that ran between

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

and

Adapazarı Adapazarı () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the central district of Sakarya Province. The province itself was originally named Adapazarı as well. Adapazarı is a part of the densely populated region of the country known as the Marmara Re ...

. For the majority of its time in service, it was the second-busiest route of 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 ...

, after the Adana-Mersin Regional. Trains served a heavily populated region on the north-east shores of the

Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara,; grc, Προποντίς, Προποντίδα, Propontís, Propontída also known as the Marmara Sea, is an inland sea located entirely within the borders of Turkey. It connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea via the ...

, and the Sakarya plain so service was frequent, with 12 trains daily in each direction in 2012. The Regional service also passed through these important districts of Istanbul:

Kadıköy Kadıköy (), known in classical antiquity and during the Roman and Byzantine eras as Chalcedon ( gr, Χαλκηδών), is a large, populous, and cosmopolitan district in the Asian side of Istanbul, Turkey, on the northern shore of the Sea of ...

, Maltepe,

Kartal Kartal is a district of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the Asian side of the city, on the coast of the Marmara Sea between Maltepe and Pendik. Despite being far from the city centre, Kartal is heavily populated (total population of 541,209) (20 ...

Pendik Pendik is a district of Istanbul, Turkey on the Asian side between Kartal and Tuzla, on the Marmara Sea. Home to Sabiha Gökçen International Airport. Population is 711,894. It also neighbours Sultanbeyli, Sancaktepe and Çekmeköy from nor ...

Tuzla Tuzla (, ) is the third-largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the administrative center of Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it has a population of 110,979 inhabitants. Tuzla is the economic, cultural, ed ...

as well as

Gebze Gebze (,) is a district in Kocaeli Province, Turkey. It is situated 65 km (30 mi) southeast of Istanbul, on the Gulf of Izmit, the eastern arm of the Sea of Marmara. Gebze is the largest district per population size in the province as ...

İzmit İzmit () is a district and the central district of Kocaeli province, Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental ...

and

. Because of the cities the trains service, it had earned the nickname ''Metropolitan Express''.Adapazari metropol ekspresi
- ''wowturkey.com'' The train used to service Coşkunoğulları station until the TOE (Turkish Automotive Industry) factory was closed in 1991. It also serviced Acısu, Tepetarla and Kurtköy stations until 1998. Due to the construction of the Istanbul-Ankara high-speed railway, the Haydarpaşa-Adapazarı Regional was discontinued on 1 February 2012 in order to rehabilitate the existing railway line. On 5 January 2015 service between Arifiye and

was reopened with new faster regional service known as the

Ada Express The Ada Express ( tr, Ada Ekspresi) is a limited stop regional train service operating between Gebze, Kocaeli and Adapazarı. It was inaugurated on 5 January 2015 as the successor to the popular ''Adapazarı Express'' train service. However, un ...

Equipment

Trains were usually 6-8 cars long with a single

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or ga ...

for motive power. Towards the end of its run, trains were usually equipped mostly with the Regional Fleet and a few Intercity Fleet cars. On occasion, a train was double-headed for special purposes. Before TCDD rehabilitated its old intercity and regional fleet, the electric locomotives which pulled trains were the E40000 or the E52500 series, and cars consisted of black and red regional cars that were built by TÜVASAŞ primarily for this service. Also during the 1990s, MT5600 were used for a brief period of time, but due to ridership these DRCs couldn't handle the capacity. In the late 2000s/early 2010s trains used refurbished regional and intercity cars that came into service in the 1970s, with the conductor car being either the first or last car. The E43000 were the only type of locomotives that pulled trains, as well as pulling express service on the line to Ankara and other cities. Also the route was the last stronghold for regional cars, as they were replaced with DMUs on other routes. Sometimes E14000 EMUs, used for commuter service in İstanbul and previously

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, mak ...

, were used for special holidays or weekend service when extra equipment was needed.

Pictures

Adapazari Express at Haydarpasa.JPG, Train #11612 about to depart Haydarpaşa in October 2011. E52515 Adapazari Ekspresi.jpg, An eastbound train leaving Haydarpaşa station in March 2001. E52509 at Haydarpasa.jpg, A train waiting to depart Haydarpaşa station in November 2000.

References

External links

TCDD Official SiteAdapazarı Regional timetable
- tcdd.gov.tr {{DEFAULTSORT:Haydarpasa-Adapazari Regional Passenger rail transport in Turkey Named passenger trains of Turkey Train-related introductions in 1977