Türkiye will inaugurate the 153-kilometer Cerkezkoy-Kapikule section of the Halkali-Kapikule high-speed line on October 9, the Transport and Infrastructure Ministry confirmed, opening the longest segment of a corridor built to carry both passengers and freight to the Bulgarian frontier at Kapikule.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attend the ceremony, according to a written statement from Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu carried by state-run Anadolu Agency.

The double-track, electrified section, designed for 200 km/h operation, includes 31 bridges, eight cut-and-cover tunnels, two viaducts, 114 underpasses and overpasses, and 175 culverts. Workers laid 353 kilometers of rail under the project.

What are the operational targets?

Uraloglu tied the new infrastructure to four specific traffic outcomes that he framed as projections tied to the line's design rather than measured outputs:

• Halkali-Kapikule passenger journey: 4 hours down to 1.5 hours
• Halkali-Kapikule freight transit: 8.5 hours down to 3.5 hours
• Annual passenger capacity: 600,000 rising to about 3 million
• Annual freight capacity: 1.5 million tons rising to 9.5 million tons

"These are the targets a 200 km/h electrified corridor through Thrace can deliver when paired with the border works now in place," Uraloglu said. Rail capacity across the route rises roughly fourfold once the section enters service, according to his statement.

What changes at the border?

Kapikule station, Türkiye's busiest rail crossing into the European Union, gains track and platform capacity as part of the same program. Track count rises from 23 to 42. Total track length nearly doubles, from 14,840 meters to 29,680 meters. A 2.4-kilometer stretch between Kapikule and the Bulgarian frontier converts from single to double track.

Uraloglu said the expanded layout raises train acceptance and shunting capacity while shortening customs and inspection queues. In 2024, 86% of Türkiye's rail freight exports moved along this corridor, a dependency that makes Kapikule throughput a system-wide constraint.

How does the line fit wider corridors?

Uraloglu described Halkali-Kapikule as Türkiye's primary European gateway for the Middle Corridor, linking the country to the European rail network. He framed the line as the western end of the planned Development Road, intended to connect Iraq's Al Faw Port to Europe through Turkish territory.

The route serves industrial zones and ports in Istanbul, Kocaeli, Tekirdag, and the wider Trakya (Thrace) region, with faster transit to Bulgaria and onward into the EU rail network presented as the headline benefit for shippers.

What still has to be built?

Two sections of the full Halkali-Kapikule corridor remain under construction:

• Ispartakule-Cerkezkoy, the eastern segment
• Ispartakule-Halkali, the final link to Istanbul's Halkali terminus

Until the ministry commissions those segments, high-speed operations will run only between Cerkezkoy and Kapikule.

What to watch next

Full benefit to operators and shippers depends on commissioning the still-unfinished eastern sections, aligning timetables with Bulgarian counterparts, and turning the new Kapikule capacity into measurable border-crossing time savings.