High-speed train services have started between Turkey’s capital Ankara and the outskirts of its biggest city Istanbul.<br /><br />The line – inaugurated by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan – is part of a planned network of such rail links to ease the burden on Turkey’s increasingly congested highways. <br /><br />The Spanish-made trains have a top speed of 250 kilometres an hour and will make the more than 500 hundred kilometre journey in three and a half hours.<br /><br />Next year the line is due to connect with the Marmaray rail link below the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul.<br /><br />Until then passengers will disembark at Pendik, on the eastern outskirts of the Asian side of Istanbul, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Bosphorus. <br /><br />Those traveling to and from Istanbul city centre will for now complete their journey by bus and subway.<br /><br />This the latest in a series of “mega projects” Erdogan hopes will help him win a presidential election in a few weeks time.<br /><br />Turkey’s economic development – driven partly by major infrastructure projects – has been the foundation of the prime minister’s popularity despite deepening discontent among his opponents at what they see as growing authoritarianism.<br /><br />“Twelve years ago, a fast train was nothing more than a dream … We are now a country which makes its dreams come true,” Erdogan said. <br /><br />with Reuters
