MARMARAY TUNNEL OPENS

The Marmaray tunnel linking the European and Asian sides of Istanbul was opened on 29 October 2013. The event took place on the same day as the 90th anniversary of the founding of Atatürk’s Republic in Turkey, and it was attended by the Romanian Prime Minister, Victor Ponta, and the Somali President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, among other public figures. Also present was Shinzo Abe, the Prime Minister of Japan, the main funding partner, who even ambitiously suggested that the line could form part of a Tokyo–Istanbul–London rail route some day.

CITEF’s participation in the Marmaray project comprised the following:

• calculating the transport capacity and interval between trains for services using CBTC and for long-distance trains equipped with ERTMS Level 1 and
• validating the electrical design in normal and degraded operating conditions.

This collaboration strengthens CITEF’s participation beyond European borders