Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Karaismailoglu stated that the Gayrettepe-Kağıthane-Airport metro line has been completed by 97 percent adding, "We aim to open the section between Kağıthane and Istanbul Airport within 4 months and the Gayrettepe-Kağıthane section by the end of the year.” Karaismailoglu also said, 'We will experience the firsts in this project. For the first time, metro trains with engines manufactured domestically will be used in this project. Train signalling and decommissioning will be implemented using domestic facilities.”
Karaismailoglu, who made statements to journalists after his reviews, said: "Just like we have made this town the transfer center of the world thanks to Istanbul Airport, we are processing the city interior like embroidery with new rail systems. We are working 24/7 to make the city transportation faster, economical, environmentally friendly and comfortable in Istanbul. We have announced mobilization in rail system and railway works in our country. During the period of our governments, we have invested over 1 trillion 337 billion for transportation investments in our country. In these investments, our railways are at the forefront with TL 272 billion. We have made Turkey the 8th high-speed train operator in the world and the 6th high-speed train operator in Europe. More than 600 million passengers have been transported from Marmaray to this day. On March 30, 2022, exactly 616 thousand people traveled with Marmaray. We are approaching our target of 1 million passengers a day. To date, exactly 81 million vehicles have passed through the Eurasia tunnel. 60 thousand vehicles use the Eurasia tunnel daily. It is very important for us to fully prepare Istanbul for tomorrow.”
312 kilometers of the 811 kilometer rail system line serving in 12 cities throughout Turkey was made by the Ministry of Transportation. There are 185 kilometers of rail system lines in 14 separate projects currently underway being built by our ministry.
Referring to the ongoing rail system projects in Istanbul, the Minister said, "The rail system network in Istanbul is 260 kilometers. When our ongoing projects are completed, this figure will increase to 363 kilometers. We are working day and night on 7 separate lines in Istanbul covering a total of 103.3-kilometer urban rail system.
With the opening of the line, the travel time between Kağıthane and Istanbul Airport will decelerate to 24 minutes. Taksim-Istanbul Airport travel time will go down to 41 minutes. On the other hand Zincirlikuyu and Istanbul Airport travel time will go down to 33 minutes.
