Sirkeci railway station

Sirkeci railway station , listed on maps as Istanbul railway station , is a railway terminal in Istanbul. The terminal is located on the tip of Istanbul's historic peninsula right next to the Golden Horn and just northwest of Gülhane Park and the Topkapı Palace. Sirkeci Terminal, along with Haydarpaşa Terminal on the other side of the Bosphorus, are Istanbul's two intercity and commuter railway terminals. Built in 1890 by the Oriental Railway as the eastern terminus of the world-famous Orient Express, Sirkeci Terminal has become a symbol of the city. As of 19 March 2013 service to the station had been indefinitely suspended due to the rehabilitation of the existing line between Kazlıçeşme and Halkalı for the new Marmaray commuter rail line. On 29 October 2013, a new underground station opened to the public and is currently serviced by Marmaray trains travelling across the Bosphorus. Sirkeci Terminal has a total of 4 platforms with 7 tracks . Formerly, commuter trains to Halkalı would depart from tracks 2, 3 and 4 while regional trains to Kapıkule, Edirne and Uzunköprü along with international trains to Bucharest, Sofia and Belgrade would depart from tracks 1 and 5.

After the Crimean War, the Ottoman authorities concluded that a railway connecting Europe with Istanbul was necessary. The first contract was signed with Labro, a British member of parliament, in January 1857. The contract was cancelled three months later because Labro was unable to provide the investment capital required. Similar second and third contracts signed with British and Belgian entrepreneurs in 1860 and 1868 ended with the same result. On 17 April 1869 the concession for the "Rumeli Railroad" was awarded to Baron Maurice de Hirsch , a Bavaria-born banker from Belgium. The project foresaw a route from Istanbul via Edirne, Plovdiv and Sarajevo to the shore of the Sava River. The construction of the first 15 kilometres from Istanbul to Halkalı began on 4 June 1870 and was completed on 4 January 1871. An extension of the line to Sirkeci was demanded as the starting point since Yeşilköy was too far away from Eminönü, the main business district of that epoch. The first proposed option for the line was a route from Beyazit down to the shore of the Golden Horn. The Ottoman Sultan Abdülaziz decided and permitted the route to run on the shoreline of the Sea of Marmara bordering the walls of Topkapı Palace’s lower garden. The extension line was completed on 21 July 1872. In 1873, a "temporary" terminus station in Sirkeci was built.

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