|
I love Turkish trains and
have ridden them happily for 40 years.
The Turkish
State Railways (TCDD) website used
to be difficult, even impossible
to use, but I'm happy to report
that now it is much
easier to use.
Even the old nearly-impenetrable
database with detailed
train information (departure and arrival
times for all stops, fares, etc.) and
a clunky, slow interface that could
be accessed only via Internet Explorer
for Windows (no other browsers would
work)—if it could be accessed at all—has
been greatly improved, is much faster,
and is now accessible
by a variety of web browsers.
Here are the most important
train terms to know:
YÜKSEK HIZLI TREN (YHT)
= High-speed train
HAREKET SAATLERİ = Departure/arrival
times
K: = Kalkış (Departure;
times are 24-hour clock)
V: = Varış (Arrival)
MESAFE = Distance
BU TRENLERDEKİ VAGON TİPİ =
Types
of cars [services] on this train
Pulman = Pullman
car (seats in rows, as on a plane)
Örtülü Kuşet = Couchettes with blanket
& pillow
Yemekli = Dining car
Yataklı = Sleeping car
Remember, schedules are by station,
not by city. Therefore, trains to Istanbul's
Asian station at Haydarpaşa bear the
name Haydarpaşa, not
Istanbul; trains for Izmir's Basmane
station are marked Basmane,
not Izmir.
For
those traveling to or from rail destinations
outside of Turkey, schedules
to foreign destinations have
maintained HTML simplicity:
Trains
to/from Europe (Greece,
Bulgaria, Romania)
Trains
to/from the Middle East (Iran,
Syria, Iraq)
|
