Turkey to get high-speed trains from Siemens

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkey will get new high-speed trains from Siemens under a €340 million ($420 million) worth agreement, the German industry giant announced on Friday.

"Turkish State Railways (TCDD) has signed a contract for ten Velaro high-speed trains with Siemens, which submitted the most favorable bid in the tender," the company said.

"The contract is worth around €340 million and also includes maintenance, repair and cleaning of the trains for a period of three years," it said, noting that the Turkish Velaro fleet will grow to 17 trains with this new contract.

Sabrina Soussan, CEO at the mobility division of Siemens, said the Velaro remains a “benchmark for high-speed trains" in terms of capacity and comfort.

"In Turkey, the train can fully utilize all its strengths and is already proving this in daily operation," Soussan said, adding: "Our flagship is running here with 99-percent availability."

The company also noted that the seven Velaro high-speed trains -- currently operating in Spain, France, Germany, the U.K., Belgium, Russia, China, Turkey and the Netherlands -- had already covered over five million kilometers in passenger service in Turkey since 2015.

In recent years, Turkey has carried out a series of high-speed railway projects, starting with opening of Ankara-Eskisehir line in 2009. In 2011, over 200-kilometer length Ankara-Konya line entered service, followed by Eskisehir-Istanbul line in 2014.

The country is still working on Ankara-Izmir high-speed railway line with 625 km length and around 400-km length Ankara-Sivas line.