Marmaray

Marmaray is a rail transport project in Istanbul. It consists of the construction of an undersea rail tunnel under the Bosphorus strait as well as the modernization of suburban rail lines along the Sea of Marmara from Halkalı on the European side to Gebze on the Asian side. The procurement of new rolling stock for suburban passenger traffic is also part of the project.

The name Marmaray (Marmarail) comes from combining the name of the Sea of Marmara, which lies just south of the project site, with ray, the Turkish word for rail.

The project

The project includes a Шаблон:Convert Bosphorus crossing, the upgrade of Шаблон:Convert of suburban train lines to create a 76.3 km high-capacity line between Gebze and Halkalı and the provision of 440 rail cars.

The Bosphorus (Istanbul Strait) will be crossed by a Шаблон:Convert-long earthquake-proofed immersed tube, assembled from 11 sections, each as long as Шаблон:Convert and weighing up to 18,000 tons. The sections will be placed down to Шаблон:Convert below sea level: Шаблон:Convert of water and Шаблон:Convert of earth. This underwater tube will be accessed by bored tunnels from Kazlıçeşme on the European side and Ayrılıkçeşme on the Asian side of Istanbul. When completed, it will be the world's deepest undersea immersed tube tunnel.

New underground stations will be built at Yenikapı, Sirkeci, and Üsküdar. 37 other above-ground stations along the line will be rebuilt or refurbished. The station at Yenikapi will connect with Istanbul Metro and Istanbul LRT. The suburban lines will be upgraded to three tracks, two for commuter and one for long-distance/high-speed passenger trains (bi-directional). The tunnel section allows for two, bi-directional tracks. During off-peak hours, freight trains may also cross the tunnel. The capacity for the suburban lines is planned for 75,000 passengers per hour in each direction. Signaling must also be modernized to allow trains to be as close as two minutes apart. The predicted travel time from Gebze to Halkalı is 104 minutes.

Construction of the Marmaray project started in May 2004. The Marmaray tunnel was completed on the 23rd of September 2008, with a formal ceremony to mark completion of the tunnel on October 13. Completion of the entire project has been repeatedly delayed, and as of December 2009, was expected to occur in October 2013.

After completion, the usage of rail transportation in Istanbul is predicted to rise from 3.6% to 27.7%, which would see Istanbul's percentage rate of rail transportation usage as the third highest in the world, behind Tokyo (60%) and New York City (31%).

In February 2010, Railway Gazette International reported that the tunnel's administrators were hiring consultants to analyse options for carrying freight traffic.

Rolling stock

Шаблон:Infobox EMU Hyundai Rotem announced on November 11 2008, that it had signed a €580m contract to supply the rolling stock for the Marmaray cross-Bosporus tunnel project in Istanbul. The Korean firm saw off competition from shortlisted bidders Alstom, CAF and a consortium of Bombardier, Siemens and Nurol for the 440-vehicle contract which was placed by the Ministry of Transport's General Directorate of Railways, Harbours & Airports.

The 22 m long stainless steel cars will be formed into 10 and five-car EMUs. Some production will be carried out locally by Eurotem, Hyundai Rotem's joint venture with Turkish rolling stock manufacturer TÜVASAŞ. The cars will arrive in three batches, the first 160 cars by 2011, the last by June 2014.

Delays

The project is currently four years behind schedule, largely due to the discovery of a Byzantine-era archaeological find on the proposed site of the European tunnel terminal in 2005. The excavations produced evidence of the city's largest harbour, the 4th-century Port of Theodosius. There, archaeologists uncovered traces of the city wall of Constantine the Great, and the remains of several ships, including what appears to be the only ancient or early medieval galley ever discovered, preventing the project from proceeding at full speed. In addition, the excavation has uncovered the oldest evidence of settlement in Istanbul, with artifacts, including amphorae, pottery fragments, shells, pieces of bone, horse skulls, and nine human skulls found in a bag, dating back to 6000 BC.

The suburban rail upgrade section of the project, known originally as CR1, faltered and is undergoing a re-tendering process due to attract bids in early 2011. The original CR1 consortium (AMD Rail Consortium) consists Japan's Marubeni, Turkey's Dogus Insaat and France's Alstom.

Tunnel construction is only about Шаблон:Convert from the active North Anatolian Fault, worrying engineers and seismologists. "Since AD 342, it has seen large earthquakes that each claimed more than 10,000 lives." Scientific calculations to estimate the probability that at some time in the next 30 years the area will suffer an earthquake of strength 7.0 or more produced an outcome of 77 percent. The waterlogged, silty soil on which the tunnel is being constructed has been known to liquefy during an earthquake; to solve this problem, engineers are injecting industrial grout down to Шаблон:Convert below the seabed to keep it stable. The walls of the tunnel will be made of waterproof concrete coated with a steel shell, each independently watertight. The tunnel is made to flex and bend similar to the way tall buildings are constructed to react if an earthquake hits. Floodgates at the joints of the tunnel are able to close and isolate water in the event of the walls' failure.

Steen Lykke, project manager for Avrasyaconsult, the international consortium that's overseeing the construction, sums it up saying, "I can't think of any challenge this project lacks".

Financing

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the European Investment Bank have provided major financing for the project. As of April 2006, JICA had lent 111 billion yen and EIB 1.05 billion euro. The total cost of the project is expected to be approximately 2.5 billion US dollars. As of late 2009, costs were expected to increase by approximately 500 million US dollars due to the archaeological delays.

See also

  • Public transport in Istanbul
  • Rail transport in Turkey
  • Turkish Straits

References

Шаблон:Reflist

External links

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Pekuz bs????
31 October 2013
İstanbul daki en iyi ulaşım aracı hergün karsıya gidip gelenler bilir . Yapanın düşünenin eline koluna aklına sağlık. Müthiş birşey :)
Merve Gelir
20 April 2014
Sirkeci istasyonu ile Türkiye sınırları içerisinde görüp görebileceğiniz en uzun yürüyen merdivenlere sahip sistem, alttan yukarı bakınca kötü oluyor :D
Mona Lisa Kent
25 February 2014
Rüya gibi kendimi avrupada hissediyorum, ölmeden başka hızlandırmalarda görebilmek istiyorum
Şükran F????????
31 October 2013
Rabbim devlete zeval vermesin normal ulaşım araçları ile 2 saatlik yol 10 dk üstelik 1.90 tl muhteşem :))
Osman Nurettin Şen
11 November 2013
Müthiş hizmet... emeği gecenlerden Allah razi olsun:)
Oguz Han Erol
30 October 2013
Trenlerde karşı cinse mimik ve jestler yapmak kesinlikle yasaktır. Öpüşmek ise duraksamalara hatta kalıcı arızalara sebep olabilmektedir. Bu tür sabote edici eylemlere yeltenenleri lütfen uyarınız.
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