Turkey Opens 153-km Cerkezkoy-Kapikule High-Speed Rail Link to Bulgaria

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated the 153-kilometre Cerkezkoy-Kapikule section of the Halkali-Kapikule high-speed railway on October 9 at Babaeski station in Kirklareli. The ceremony was attended by EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos and Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu.

The double-track, electrified line is designed for 200 km/h operation and includes 31 bridges, eight cut-and-cover tunnels, two viaducts, 114 underpasses and overpasses, and 175 culverts. Total rail laid across the project reaches 353 kilometres.

“This line is the most critical gateway of the Middle Corridor opening to Europe.”

Once the full 229-km Halkali-Kapikule line is complete, passenger journey time between Halkali in Istanbul and Kapikule at the border will fall from four hours to 1.5 hours, while freight transit will drop from 8.5 hours to 3.5 hours. Annual passenger capacity is projected to rise from 600,000 to nearly 3 million, and freight capacity from 1.5 million to 9.5 million tonnes.

Minister Uraloglu said 86 percent of Turkey's rail exports in 2024 moved through this corridor, linking organised industrial zones and ports in Istanbul, Kocaeli, Tekirdag and Thrace to European markets. The Kapikule station yard is being expanded from 23 to 42 tracks, and the 2.4-km cross-border stretch to Bulgaria is also being doubled.

The remaining Ispartakule-Cerkezkoy and Ispartakule-Halkali sections are still under construction. The government describes the line as the western gateway of the Middle Corridor connecting the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars route and Marmaray to Europe.