The thought train
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Upon completion of this project, the travel time between Ankara and Sivas, which is currently 10 hours, will be reduced to two hours, and it will take five hours to travel between Istanbul and Sivas. The tendering processes and construction works are ongoing for the Kayaş-Yerköy, Kayaş-Kırıkkale, and Kırıkkale-Yerköy sections. The Yerköy-Sivas section of the Ankara-Sivas High Speed Line Project, which constitutes the East-West corridor of our country, is under construction. Upon completion of the test runs, Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey's two biggest cities, will be connected by high-speed line this year. Within this scope, the construction of the Eskişehir-Istanbul section of the Ankara-Istanbul High Speed Line Project has been finished and test runs have started. As the Minister expressed, high-speed line projects are the leading investments to be made with the funds allocated for the rail sector. In the Investment Program of 2014, TL4 billion has been allocated to our enterprise. How will 2014 be a milestone year in this regard?
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The Minister of Transport has dubbed 2014 the year of high-speed rail. Additionally, international rail transport will increase when 19 logistics centers become fully operational and block train transportation is improved. The Derince-Tekirdağ Rail Ferry Line will make a great contribution to exports by rail to Europe via the Aegean and Marmara regions, and vice versa. In total, 88 runs, 94% of which account for exports, have been performed on the Samsun-Kavkaz Ferry Line. A significant amount of rail transportation services will be carried out from Filyos Port, which is planned to be commissioned in 2016 and have a capacity of 25 million tons per year heading toward Russia and European countries. When the Kars-Nakhchivan-Iran and Van Lake Crossing Projects are realized, there will be a substantial increase in the volume of rail transport toward Iran and the Middle East. The completion of Nusaybin-Cizre-Silopi-Habur Railway Project, which will provide a connection to Iraq, will considerably increase rail transport toward Iraq and other parts of the Middle East. The Viking Train will provide a connection to the Mediterranean basin, Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia via Turkey. The Viking Train is a significant combined transport project between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. This project will allow for uninterrupted block train transportation between Europe and China through Turkey. With the commencement of freight transport on the Marmaray and the finalization of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) project, we intend to carry 6.5 million tons on this line per year. Upon the completion of the following planned and ongoing projects, TCDD will be a logistics bridge between Asia and Europe.
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What potential do you see for rail exports in the medium term? Currently, less than 1% of Turkey's exports are carried via rail.