The Adana–Mersin Main Line is a 67 km (41 miles) long double track rail line from the

Adana Railway Station Adana station ( tr, Adana garı) is a railway station in Adana and one of the major railway hubs in Turkey. The station is located at the İstasyon Square, in Kurtuluş, Seyhan. The Central Station is steps away from the Vilayet Metro statio ...

Adana Adana (; ; ) is a major city in southern Turkey. It is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The administrative seat of Adana province, it has a population of 2.26 million. Adana lies in the heart of Cilicia, wh ...

to the

Mersin Railway Station Mersin station ( tr, Mersin istasyonu) is the main railway terminal in the city of Mersin, Turkey. The station is located in the ilçe (district) of Akdeniz. The station is in use since 1886. The railway The station was built in 1886 to be t ...

in Mersin. The line passes through the city of Tarsus and has branch lines to the

Port of Mersin The Port of Mersin ( tr, Mersin Limanı), is a major seaport located on the north-eastern coast of Mediterranean Sea in Mersin, southern Turkey. As one of the largest harbors in the country, it is Turkey's main gateway to the Mediterranean Sea. ...

. The line is one of the busiest rail lines in Turkey with 57 passenger trains and about 20 freight trains daily.Adana (Station) to Mersin
/ref> At Yenice, between Tarsus and Adana, the main railroad line north to

Ulukışla Ulukışla is a town and district of Niğde Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. It covers an area of 1,502 km², and the altitude is 1,427 m. Population is 22,728 of which 5,594 live in the town of Ulukışla. The town of Ulu ...

to the north joins the Adana–Mersin line; at Ulukışla, its two branches continue to

Konya Konya () is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium (), although the Seljuks also called it ...

and

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

to the northwest and Kayseri to the northeast.

History

Mersin–Tarsus–Adana Railway

On January 20, 1883, the Ottoman Government gave a concession to develop railways in Cilicia to two Turkish men. They sold a part of their rights to a group of English and French investors, leading to the establishment of the Mersin–Tarsus–Adana Railway (MTA), a French company headquartered in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The line was quickly built and opened on August 2, 1886. In 1896, the Turkish men sold all their rights to the company, making the MTA fully foreign owned. In 1906,

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

bought the line from the French company. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the

Turkish Independence War The Turkish War of Independence "War of Liberation", also known figuratively as ''İstiklâl Harbi'' "Independence War" or ''Millî Mücadele'' "National Struggle" (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns waged by th ...

, the line was still owned by the Deutsche Bank. On January 1, 1929, the line was nationalized, as were the Chemins de Fer Ottomans d'Anatolie (CFOA). It became part of the Chemins de fer d'Anatolie Baghdad Railway, which was a part of the

Turkish State Railways The State Railways of the Republic of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları), abbreviated as TCDD, is a government-owned national railway company responsible with the ownership and maintenance of railway infrastructure in Turkey ...

(TCDD). TCDD operates the line to this day. The MTA terminal station in Adana was abandoned by the Baghdad Railway which built its own station further north.

References

External links

Trains of TurkeyAdana Mersin train route map and timetable
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adana-Mersin railway Ottoman railways Railway lines in Turkey Railway lines opened in 1886 Transport in Adana Çukurova Standard gauge railways in Turkey 1886 establishments in the Ottoman Empire