In today's video, I'm going to be taking you on-board the LEGENDARY Turkish high-speed
railway, running from İstanbul to Ankara, in one of the EXCLUSIVE 'VIP' suites.
Let's go!
Welcome to İstanbul Söğütlüçeşme, a station on the Anatolian (or Asian) side of
Turkey's biggest city.
The station consists of little more than a small ticket office, and a connection to local
transport.
Söğütlüçeşme is located some 15 minutes away by commuter rail from the city's historic
centre.
Though beware that getting tickets for the Marmaray train to reach it can be very fiddly,
so leave extra time if you've not used the service before, or you may miss your train.
Like a lot of transport in Turkey, access to the departure area is only granted following
an airport-style security check.
After which all passengers are crammed into this undersized waiting area.
Following an ID and ticket inspection, you can finally reach the platforms.
My ride today is one of these eight carriage Yüksek Hızlı Tren or YHT units, this name
meaning simply High Speed Train.
These 250km/h capable trains are part of the Siemens Velaro family, which you may recognise
from elsewhere, for example Deutsche Bahn's ICE trains, or the cross-channel Eurostar
service.
Most trains on the İstanbul to Ankara route are operated with older CAF Sepia units, but
a small handful are these brand-new Velaro trains.
Turkish Railways operate a fleet of 18 Velaro units, alongside 12 of the older CAF high-speed
trains.
Well, with nothing else to show at this station, it's time to get on-board.
I'm travelling on train number YHT 81008 today, running from İstanbul Söğütlüçeşme
to Ankara.
So I'll be in a luxurious VIP suite for this journey, but first, here's a look at Business
Class, located in carriage one.
It appears very similar to Germany's ICE trains, with the same colour scheme and design.
Now on to today's main event: the three VIP suites located in carriage two.
These consist of four luxurious reclining armchairs, and if this looks impressive, then
just wait until you see what fancy features they have.
Today's route will take us from Turkey's biggest city, İstanbul.
First running through the city's commuter network, before passing along the Sea of Marmara.
We'll then stop at the city of Eskişehir, and finally have a speedy run into the capital
city.
Departure today is on-time at 09:35.
The first section of travelling is spent rather tediously crawling along beside Marmaray commuter
trains, on a single-track route.
After just ten minutes, we arrive into Bostancı station to pick up more passengers.
This slow pace carries on for quite some time, the train being lucky to see speeds of 100km/h.
Pendik station is next.
Until March 2019, this suburb of İstanbul was the start point of high-speed trains from
the city, despite being 45 minutes from the centre.
After leaving Pendik, VIP and Business passengers are served with their complimentary light
refreshments.
This consists of a small pot of water, a carton of fruit juice, and a pack of Italian style
biscotti.
Earphones are also provided, but more on why that is later.
After a total of 1 hour and 10 minutes from departure, we arrive into Gebze, the last
station on the Marmaray network, and finally the point where we join the much faster mainline
railway.
We're now by the Sea of Marmara, home to lots of industry as well as ports for cargo ships.
Now let's take a look around the VIP suite on Turkish high-speed rail.
First off, just LOOK at the seat.
It presents itself elegantly, like a throne on rails.
The compartment is very private too, being sealed off from the rest of the train by a
slick looking frosted glass divider.
As for seat comfort, it more than exceeded my expectations, with loads of padding providing
an exceptionally relaxing ride.
This is complimented by a really soft head cushion too.
Moving on to the seat's controls, where this seat really shines.
There is of course a recline feature, which is controlled electronically.
Next up is a seat rotation feature, ideal for conversations with your travel companions.
Controls for the personal reading lights are available, with three brightness settings.
With the overall compartment lights also having two brightness settings, as well as the ability
to completely turn them off, relying only on natural light.
The compartment's temperature can also be controlled,
and lastly there is also some sort of call button for the carriage attendants.
Between seats is a small fixed table, ideal for putting drinks on...
...a more useful tray table can be folded out from one of the armrests.
The other armrest features an on-board entertainment and information screen, but we'll take a proper
look at this later on.
Beneath the screen is a single European style power socket.
There's a sun blind at the window, in the event you travel during better weather than
I did.
And finally, each seat has a coat hook on the wall.
It's certainly a luxurious experience, and you won't believe how much it cost - details
towards the end of the video.
Here at Doğançay we can see another construction site.
This will soon become part of the YHT network, serving to bypass some of the previous mountainous
terrain.
After a couple more tunnels, we're now finally on one of the dedicated high-speed tracks!
This part of the route enables us to accelerate up to our top-speed of 250km/h, rendering
the scenic Turkish landscape a mere blur out of the window.
Moving back to the entertainment system, and there's really a lot to show here, so I'll
keep it brief.
First up, a moving map to track the journey's progress.
There's also a weather map, so you can check the weather along the route, and at your destination.
Next up, access to the train's front-facing CCTV camera.
This wasn't working today, but when it does, it's really cool!
A decent selection of video and audio is available on-board, though my favourite has to be the
promotional videos for other Turkish Railway services, such as the overnight İzmir Mavi.
Keep your eye on my channel for a video on this historic route too!
We're now arriving at Bilecik YHT station.
Located about a mile from the town itself, it wasn't surprising to see that not many
passengers boarded or left the train here.
When leaving Bilecik YHT, you can actually see the original Bilecik station, which is
even further from the town's centre.
Of course the line we're riding on now is not the original İstanbul to Ankara route,
with the older line often being visible nearby whilst on high-speed sections.
If there's one thing I wasn't expecting to see on this journey, it's snow!
Though I suppose with an elevation of over 500m and it being winter, perhaps I should
have considered the possibility at least.
Anyway, let's take this opportunity to have a look around other parts of the train.
This here is Ekonomi Class, the cheapest option to travel on the YHT.
Moving on, we have the toilets, which are fairly standard, with one big exception.
Here, there is a modern vaccuum toilet.
And I'm pleased to report that the soap and water were working perfectly fine.
Though the hand dryer wasn't working...due to COVID-19?
The unique thing about these toilets compared to other Velaro trains is the presence of
a bidet, for cultural reasons here in Turkey.
Now on to the buffet and restaurant carriage, sadly the full service is suspended at the
moment, but it still seems very popular in here!
The menu currently consists of snacks and drinks, with prices actually being very good,
and similar to what you'd pay in a shop.
We're now working our way back up to our top-speed of 250km/h, through what seems like a blizzard
at this speed.
It really was quite impressive to watch.
The next station is Eskişehir.
This city has a lot of significance for Turkey's railways.
Not only is it the location of the TÜLOMSAŞ locomotive factory, but also the terminus
of the first high-speed railway in Turkey, the section to Polatlı opening in 2009.
As you can see, the station is now a very modern construction, having been rebuilt for
the high-speed line.
Though one thing you can look out for is the classic old station building, visible just
after departure.
The majority of the remaining route is all high-speed track, allowing us to run at top-speed
for most of the trip.
Scenery here takes the form of flat farmland, with distant snow-capped mountains.
You can also see the occasional mesa in the distance.
We closely follow the original classic route for much of the trip's remainder, with the
single track line weaving its way through the same area the high-speed train does, of
course at a much lower speed.
This is the junction for the high-speed route to Konya and Karaman.
The route sees a few trains a day to both İstanbul and Ankara, mostly operated with
the older YHT units.
Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see a video on these other Turkish high-speed
trains.
Shortly after, you can catch a glimpse of the Mehmetçik Monument.
This statue is dedicated to soldiers who fought in the 1921 Battle of Sakarya, and a museum
about this found adjacent to the statue.
We're now arriving into Polatlı YHT.
This station opened in February 2011, but still seems unfinished and desserted.
Now to run through how much this journey cost.
For one ticket in a VIP suite, you can expect to pay 145 Turkish Lira.
For this 332 mile trip, that gives a price per mile of about 2p!
Absolutely incredible value for money!
Now, to be honest, I thought this was too cheap to not take advantage of, so I opted
to reserve all four seats in the compartment, paying 580 Turkish Lira for the lot, resulting
in a price per mile of about 9p, which I think is still a fantastic price for the journey.
We're now arriving at Eryaman YHT, the final station before Ankara.
So in conclusion, I really loved my experience on the Turkish YHT today.
The VIP suites offer a level of luxury and exclusivity that I don't believe is rivalled
by ANY other high-speed train I know of.
However, the lack of proper food is a disappointment, and one that I hope is rectified soon.
My biggest issue with the service, though, has to be with the İstanbul section of the
route.
Over an hour is spent crawling through the suburbs, and it really adds a lot to the time
it takes between the cities, somewhat negating any advantage over buses and planes, with
a massive five hours of travel time.
Additionally, the terminus station of Söğütlüçeşme is not very convenient, though it's said that
the better located Haydarpaşa station is to be reactivated at some point in the future.
I really hope these infrastructure issues are sorted, as the YHT was a fantastic experience
on-board, and one that I would still highly recommend.
We're now arriving into Ankara YHT, the grand new station for the Turkish capital.
Arrival is thirteen minutes late, at 14:42.
What do you think of the YHT VIP suites?
Do you know of any more luxurious high-speed trains?
While I'm leaving the train is a perfect opportunity to drop a comment below telling me your thoughts
on the video.
Thanks for watching my review of Turkey's high-speed train.
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I hope you enjoyed the video, and I look forward to seeing you again on my next journey.