Turkey is building a high-speed railway on the Halkali – Edirne – Kapikule route, which runs directly to the Bulgarian border at the Kapitan Andreevo crossing point. Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu confirmed the timeline.
Scale of the project:
By the end of 2028 Turkey plans to open around 3,000 km of new high-speed track, with roughly 5,000 km of lines under construction in total. The Kapikule corridor is treated as a priority because it links Istanbul with the EU rail network.
🇹🇷 Turkey:
- Halkali – Edirne – Kapikule: direct approach to the Bulgarian border
- Other lines: Ankara – Izmir; Bandirma – Bursa – Yenisehir – Osmaneli; Mersin – Adana – Osmaniye – Gaziantep
- Provinces served by high-speed trains to rise from 11 to 27
🇧🇬 Bulgaria:
- The corridor continues via Plovdiv and Sofia towards the rest of the EU
- Shorter freight transit times and a stronger role as a rail bridge between Europe, the Balkans and Asia
What travellers should do now:
Until the line opens, road traffic still concentrates at Kapitan Andreevo, so allow extra time on weekends and public holidays. Check current conditions on our Turkish border crossings page and the neighbouring Bulgarian crossings overview before you set off.
Ankara's longer-term goal is a 28,500 km national rail network by 2053. The first high-speed line, Ankara – Eskisehir, opened in 2009, and Turkish high-speed services have since carried more than 114 million passengers.
Source: BurgasMedia
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