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Built by French engineers
and inaugurated on January 17, 1875, Istanbul's Tünel underground
train allowed European diplomats
and businessmen to ride between their
waterside offices in Karaköy (Galata)
and their hilltop residences in Beyoglu (Pera)(map)
on steam-powered, gas-lit cars in
90 seconds.
It was only the third underground
railway built in the world by that
time, and was the shortest.
For over a century it was Istanbul's
only underground train.
Although the
city has now completed several lines
of its far-flung Metro system
(click here to download a .pdf map of the system [363Kb]), and the Tünel's
wonderful old 19th-century lacquered-wood
cars were
replaced by boring modern metal cars
in the 1970s, the Tünel is still fun
to ride, and quite convenient.
Fare is TL1.20
and,
as there are only two stations, you
won't get lost. You can
use your Istanbulkart transit
pass to pay the fare, or buy a jeton (token)
at the entrance to the station.
The Tünel operates
from about 06:00 am until 22:00 (10
pm). I don't know for sure. I went
to the IETT
website to look up the
times. The website has all sorts of
moving, flashing, sliding baloney on
it, and it gives you lots of wonderful
historical facts about
transport in Istanbul, but it doesn't
tell you the times that services operate.
Duh!
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Above, Tünel's
little two-car train.
Below left, the tunnel that
gives the train its name.
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