Webuild consortium completes key Istanbul-Bulgarian high-speed rail line

Italy’s Webuild has announced that its consortium with Turkey’s Kolin Group for Turkish State Railways has completed a section of a high-speed rail planned to connect Istanbul to the Bulgarian border. 

The longest part of the planned Halkalı-Kapıkule route – a section running 153 kilometres between the logistics and manufacturing hub of Çerkezköy and the rail and road crossing of Kapıkule at the border with Bulgaria – has been inaugurated. It was delivered by an Italian-Turkish consortium led by Webuild and commissioned by the General Directorate of Turkish State Railways.

The ceremony, held at the Babaeski station at mid-point between Çerkezköy and Kapıkule, was attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, and European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos. An inaugural train ride was conducted between Babaeski and the nearby station of Lüleburgaz, marking the start of operations along what will become one of the main railway borders in the Euro-Mediterranean region. 

Once completed, the entire route will be 229km, stretching from Halkalı, a transportation hub near Istanbul, and Kapıkule at the border near the city of Edirne. 

Featuring an electrified double-track system and advanced signalling technology, the trains will travel at speeds of up to 200 km per hour, able to carry both passengers and freight.

The railway will become part of the Middle Corridor, the route linking Asia and Europe through the Caucasus, the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railway and the Marmaray rail tunnel beneath the Bosphorus, contributing to the development of an increasingly important alternative logistics axis for Eurasian trade. 

Construction of the Çerkezköy-Kapıkule section included 33 bridges, 2 viaducts, 3 cut-and-cover tunnels, around 120 underpasses and overpasses, more than 350 kilometres of track, and the upgrading of the main stations along the route.-TradeArabia News Service