ISTANBUL HALKALI (Europe) - GEBZE (Asia) METRO/INTERCITY LINE

"MARMARAY CR3" Project

Italferr, together with SWS Company, signed in June 2017 the contract as Independent Design Verification Engineer (IDVE) with the Turkish consortium of companies Kolin-Kaliyon-Cengiz (KKC) for the construction of the Marmaray line.

The project consists in the complete renovation/transformation of existing suburban railway line sections and their stations to obtain 3 new tracks, of which 2 are mainly dedicated to metropolitan train traffic and 1 to Intercity/High-speed/freight trains. In the section that underpasses the Bosporus, on the other hand, two tracks are to be used with mixed traffic modes. Particularly in this section, freight transport is only allowed at night (00:00-05:00) when metropolitan train traffic is stopped. The line has a total length of 76.6 km, 43 stations, and interconnects 10 different districts.

The entire link has 43 stations and allows it to serve as many as 10 different districts. Total travel time is 115 minutes. Upon reaching full functionality, the capacity of the system will allow the transportation of 75,000 passengers per hour per direction with an estimated 1.2-1.7 million passengers per day.

On 12 March 2019, the entire Instanbul Halkali (Europe)-Gebze (Asia) Metro/Intercity line, considered one of the longest in the world, was inaugurated. Sixty-three kilometers were opened to traffic, bringing the entire line to a total of about 76.6 kilometers. As IDVE, Italferr was in charge of verifying the compliance of the design drawings with contractual requirements and project specifications for the purpose of issuing Design Verification Certificates.

The work of the IDVE continued until the completion of the performance and subsequent implementation phases necessary to reach the final configuration of the entire project. The work was completed in October 2020, and possible extensions of activities are planned.