Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdülkadir Uraloğlu, in his speech at the opening ceremony of Çerkezköy-Kapıkule High Speed Train Line held at Babaeski Train Station, said that he was very happy to be present at the opening of the project, which is one of the most important railway works in the history of the Republic and carries Türkiye's global logistics power to the next level.
Uraloğlu stated that under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, works worthy of the Turkish Century were presented to the service of the nation, one after another, and continued as follows:
"With the high vision and instructions of our President, we have started a new era full of success in railways in the last 24 years. We have increased our railway network from 10 thousand 948 kilometers to 14 thousand 272 kilometers. Today, we have increased our high-speed train network, which we built from scratch, to 2 thousand 604 kilometers with our Çerkezköy-Kapıkule High Speed Train Line."
Minister Uraloğlu stated that they are proud to commission the 153-kilometer Çerkezköy-Kapıkule High Speed Train Line, which is the longest section of the Halkalı-Kapıkule Railway Line.
"The number of provinces directly reached by high-speed train has increased to 14"
Uraloğlu said that the double-track, electric, level-1 signal line, which was built in accordance with the operating speed of 200 kilometers per hour, brings Tekirdağ, Kırklareli and Edirne together with the comfort of high-speed trains, and pointed out that the number of provinces directly reached by the high-speed train increased from 11 to 14.
Uraloğlu gave the following information:
"By increasing the Kapıkule Station area from 253 thousand square meters to 660 thousand square meters and the number of lines inside the station from 23 to 42, we significantly reduce the waiting times at border crossings and transform Kapıkule from a waiting point into an uninterrupted logistics gateway. This line, which is one of the most important links of the railway chain and the Central Corridor, which starts with Baku-Tbilisi-Kars and connects Asia and Europe with Marmaray, is the project It will be located at the western end of the Development Road, which is still under construction, and will bring together the international east-west and north-south corridors on the Türkiye axis.
We continue our work on our 69-kilometer-long Ispartakule-Çerkezköy stage. We are about to complete the construction work on the last section of approximately 7 kilometers that will connect Ispartakule to Halkalı. "Hopefully, we plan to put that section into service before the end of this year."
"Türkiye and the EU made joint efforts"
Minister Uraloğlu said that the Kapıkule-Çerkezköy line is a project for which joint efforts have been made for a long time in cooperation with the European Union.
Stating that serious time, effort and effort have been put forth at all levels by both Türkiye and the European Union, Uraloğlu said:
"By putting our line into service today, we are once again connecting both continents and our country with the European Union, and reinforcing our cooperation. We will continue to work together with the European Union to further carry our cooperation in this project in the transportation corridors. With your strong leadership, we continue to offer works worthy of the Turkish Century to the service of our nation, one after another.
Your determined stance and relentless determination to work inspire us and enable us to move toward greater goals. Hopefully, we will increase the number of provinces connected directly by high-speed train to 27 by 2028. May God grant us the ability to achieve many more works with your leadership in the Türkiye Century. I would like to express my gratitude to your states for being with us and supporting this project, as in every project that will shed light on Türkiye's future. "I would like to thank our contractor companies, State Railways, TCDD Taşımacılık AŞ, officials of the European Union Delegation to Türkiye and all our stakeholders who have successfully completed our project, and I wish them continued success."
