By Train to İstanbul

Turkish State Railways (TCDD) operates the national railway network, although fares are very cheap, trains are rather slow and lacks air conditioning.

In Istanbul there are two railway stations, Sirkeci station, is also known as the last stop of Orient express. Trains bound for Thessaloniki, Athens, Sofia, Belgrade, Bucharest and Budapest (with transfers to Munich and Vienna) leave from Sirkeci. Trains for Turkish destinations, Iran and Syria leave from Haydarpasa Station on the Asian side.

There are trains to Istanbul from the following destinations, From Europe; Kishinev (Mol), Budapest (Hun), Beograd (Ser), Bucharest (Rom), Athens, Thessalonica (Gre) and Sofia (Bul); From Middle East; Tehran, Tebriz (Irn), Aleppo (Syr) and Baghdad (Irq). Baghdad line is temporarily closed.

There are connections from Cologne to Istanbul on the “Istanbul Express”, which also carries cars from several other European cities. There is a weekly sleeper from Moscow. InterRail tickets are available in the European part of Turkey as far as Istanbul.

Route: Thessaloniki (Selanik) – Istanbul,
There are two daily trains from Thessa to Istanbul. NEW Filia Express has started on summer of 2005 to make fast and comfortable connection between these two cities. This journey will run daily between these two cities at 20:00 hrs from each location with air conditioned, comfortable trains. There is also the Pythion express between these two cities.

Route: Athens (Atina) – Istanbul,
There are local Greek trains (OSE) between Athens and Thessaloniki and after reaching to Thessaloniki you can continue to Istanbul by filia express and/or pthyion express. There are daily 11 trains between Athens and Thessaloniki.

Route: Sofia – Istanbul,
There is a daily train that runs between Sofia to Istanbul.  Trains travel first to Dimitrovgrad and make a change to Istanbul. (For more Bulgarian trains schedule click )

Route: Bucharest (Romania),
There is a daily Bosfor Express train that runs between Bucharest to Istanbul. This train is also the connection trains of Trans Balkan Express from from Budapest and Prietenia express from Kishinev

Route: Budapest
There is a daily Trans Balkan Express From Budapest to Bucharest, afterwards you can make a change to Bosfor Express at Bucharest and continue to Istanbul

Route: Kishinev (Chisinau)
There is a daily Prietenia Express From Kishinev to Bucharest, afterwards you can make a change to Bosfor Express at Bucharest and continue to Istanbul

Route: Belgrade – Beograd
There is a daily Balkan Express train that runs between Beograd – Sofia to Istanbul.  Train travel first to Sofia, follows to Dimitrovgrad and make a change to Istanbul.

Route: Tehran
Trans Asia Express runs once in a week on Thursdays from Tehran to Istanbul. Travel time is 69 hrs including the ferry pass at the Van Lake. Ticket cost ~ 40 € from Tehran and ~32 € from Tebriz. Please note there is 1,5 hrs time difference between two countries.

Route: Damascus
There is a weekly train from Damascus to Istanbul. The train which operates from Gaziantep to Istanbul continues to Damascus with a sleeper wagon. Train from damascus leaves once in weekly every Tuesday. Ticket cost is around 34 € from Damascus and 26 € from Haleppo.