Why Turkey's high-speed train surprised me! - TCDD VIP Class Review

Hello, and welcome back to another train trip review!

Today I'm trying out the Turkish high-speed service, the TCDD Yüksek Hızlı Tren (YHT) on a ride between the biggest city (İstanbul) to the capital city (Ankara).

This journey takes place on-board the new TCDD HT80000, part of the fantastic Siemens Velaro family of high-speed trains. These trains are a little different however, featuring an incredible VİP Class, which I think is probably the most luxurious and exclusive experience available on any high-speed train. You won't believe how cheap it was either!

Enjoy the video!

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Journey Details:
Origin: İstanbul Söğütlüçeşme
Destination: Ankara YHT
Company: TCDD Taşımacılık (Turkish State Railway Transport)
Train: TCDD HT80000 'Siemens Velaro'
Accommodation: VİP Salonu Private Suite (1st+)
Distance: 332 miles / 534 kilometres
Price: ₺580 / £31.30 / €37.70 / $42.90
Time: 4h54m + 13L

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[tupapichulo]

Bravo. Great video. Admirable pronunciation of Turkish place names which isn't the norm with many bloggers.

[Estenberg]

I traveled through Turkey for many weeks per visit twice in the 1980s and once in the 1990s. So unfortunately the only rail travel I did was one train from Athens and one train from Sophia, both terminating in European Istanbul. My first voyage into the country was by bus, which 35 years ago was a far superior method of travel in Turkey. There were literally dozens of private companies all competing for the major routes (so added luxury, friendly service, and little perks were the keys to any company's success: like uniformed attendants at your service 24 hours a day, offering complimentary tea and water brought to your seat, plus refreshing icy cold lemon scented hand & face wash (like citrusy aftershave) offered every hour or so. They also brought us crispy snacks like cookies, dried fruit with almonds & pistachio nuts, or salty chips and sweet locum. The busses were also kept fresh and spotless, especially the toilet area, which never once smelled or splashed. Turkish orchestral music was often played gently like the soundtrack to the movies of our view out the window. And on some coach-lines, popular Turkish music-videos played over the closed circuit monitors throughout the motorcoach. The views were spectacular and we stopped fairly frequently for a good leg stretch and some local food (like olives, bread, eggplant dip, Turkish Feta, cherries, and roasted lamb or mutton head, or sometimes doner kabobs with Bulgar pilau and broad-beans in stewed tomatoes & red and green peppers topped with a couple of soft-boiled eggs (my favorite) and finished with a rose-water walnut and phyllo-dough pastry. The bigger the rest-stop the larger the restaurant, from full service sit-down places to steam-table cafeterias to stands to carts or grills cooking up meat on a stick, and finally to people carrying boxes full of whatever bag of lunch-food they just made at home so we could eat on the bus). It was a real slice of Turkish life traveling this way. I loved the luxury busses in Turkey. In contrast the trains were old and rundown and late. And we were hassled at the border-crossing with Greece every time. But I expect things have changed significantly in Turkey since the 1980s. Back then even the airport felt a little dumpy. But not anymore I'm sure.

[Jazzgin]

Your pronunciation of Turkish place names and other words are spectacular. Thanks for the effort, much appreciated.

[davemichael]

great work. Turkiye is really very beautiful country.

[Easylearn-lu]

Me and my mate booked a round-trip using this train in 2018. It was comfy, and smooth trip. Turkey is developing a lot compare to 20 years ago.

[mateiungurean]

I use this Train once a week to go from Ankara to Istanbul, also sometimes I catch the older model of the YHT, it s really Comfy and fast and also really cheap in comparison with european trains

[omarhamid]

Lovely review!! Great to see Turkey invest and provide such smooth high speed rail services.

Thanks for your work 👍

[danielrauf]

Turkiye and specially Istanbul is the most beautiful iconic and historic city of Europe ❤️🇹🇷

[dogukansadiakcakaya]

You mentioned almost everything in detail however you skipped to mention the Ankara train station, which is a very elegant and big one comparing other stations on route. I thinks it differs from the major European trail stations with its quite vast entertainment and food opportunities. I usually go there way before my train departure to hangout with my friends in the cafes just outside the station, the station provides a good service for those who want to take it.

[timurtopal]

There is a lot of construction going on on this route right now to cut the travel time an hour but as you've mentioned the main problem is trains going very slowly until they get out of Istanbul. This is the most used route in Turkey as it links the 2 biggest cities of our country and hopefully an hour will make a big difference on a lot of people's lives.

[mustafae]

We are proud of our railways. Congratulations to all our professionals working to make this service quality possible.

[glenngogoll]

I'd like to compliment you on your pronunciations on all your non English language journeys. Ive watched quite a lot now & I have really enjoyed them.
I've been really impressed by your efforts to pronounce names in all languages. Scandinavian, Turkish & Eastern European languages can provide a challenge for the native English speaker.
I occasionally watch a train YouTuber here in Victoria, Australia, who makes me.cringe with his struggles pronouncing Victorian country town names.
Well done that man.

[y.emrekeles]

Thank you very much for this lovely review. I'm Turkish, however, I wasn't aware that the price is so cheap.
I'm not sure if you tried the Eastern Express from Ankara to Kars. That line offers so many majestic views during the travel, especially in winter. It's definitely once in a lifetime experience.

[jirislavicek]

Really cool 👍 I remember travelling from Istanbul to Ankara about 20 years ago. It was a single track railway, train was slow, pulled by a diesel loco and arrived with 3 hours delay. A bus was much faster on the same route. It was a nice sightseeing journey through Turkish countryside but not a fast convenient way of transport.

[danadidas]

Can't get over how the journey was so cheap! Excellent value and a great well narrated video.

[c.s.]

Turkey and Turks are wonderful! Very kind and helpful people, very welcoming!

[loccusloccus]

Great video and very well investigated. As mentioned by you, Haydarpasa will become the terminus of this line again, which will provide a much better user experience than Sogutlucesme. Unfortunately, the stretch within the city limits of Istanbul, all the way to Gebze, will remain a rather slow part of this line, as it is a curvy single track, build thru densely populated areas on the Asian side. There are still works underway on different parts of the line, to speed up the overall travel time by 30+ min.

[eckartspindler]

Great review!
I'm surprised how much progress the TCDD have made since I travelled in Turkey by train in 2009.
In 2009, I managed to travel by train the entirely route from Germany to Kayseri on an epic 3 days trip.
The single track lines seemed to be unchanged since the Germans built them in beginning of 20th century. Delays of 2 and more hours were normally. Buses were normally much faster, more frequent and more reliable than trains.
The worst thing on the train trip from Europe to Turkey is the Bulgarian - Turkish border at Kapikule. You'll need to get out of the train after midnight for waiting up to 2 hours for the Turkish customs check.
I think, the border issue deters the most customers from taking the train from Bulgaria to Turkey.
Furthermore, Sirceci and Haydarpasa stations in Instanbul were nice stations which are now both out of service. For such a big city like Istanbul, the current situation of public transport is not acceptable. Hopefully, in near future, they will resume service on both stations.
Despite the terrible state of the Turkish railway tracks, the carriages were quite comfortably. In most of the long distance services, there was a restaurant car with good food. I travelled with the Mavi train Ankara - Izmir. This train provided sleeping cars with refridgerators in the compartments and showers on the aisle.

The Turkish railways have much potential becoming the major transportation hub between Europe and Asia. At present, the bottleneck is Istanbul and the railway line from Sofia to Istanbul.

[hattin]

British Rail seems antique when I travelled on this fast train in Turkey few times and even then rip off in the name of privatisation

[chiragganguly]

Amazing to such high quality rakes being used in Turkey and the Ankara station platform looked grand