Metro-Tram-LRS Performance of Türkiye

Metro, Tram and Light Rail System (LRS) transport statistics of Türkiye were recently published by Turkish Statistical Institution (TurkStat).

• How can we use this data? Which insights can be generated?
• Below is the analysis of author and it's not the official view or publication of TurkStat.

1. PERFORMANCE OF TüRK?YE

• 12 cities have Metro, Tram or LRS transport by year 2023: Adana, Ankara, Antalya,Bursa,Eski?ehir,Gaziantep,?stanbul,?zmir,Kayseri,Kocaeli,Konya,Samsun:

• 975 million passengers transported by metro, 482 million by tram, 317 million by LRS. Daily average passengers: 2.6 million Metro; 1.3 million Tram; 0.8 million HRS.

• Metro lines reached 338km,Tram 336km and LRS 287km in year 2023.

• Total Metro-Tram-HRS pax rised 49% from 1,1 billion to 1,7 billion; line lengths rised 73% from 555 km to 962 km. LRS had top growth rates; Tram growths surpassed Metro (2015-2023).

2. METRO TRENDS BY CITIES

• By 2023, ?stanbul leaded metro passengers (617 million) in Türkiye (975 million) followed by Ankara(158million), Bursa(98million) and ?zmir(92million). ?stanbul/Türkiye=63/100.

• ?stanbul had +60% growth by metro passenger traffic followed by Ankara and Bursa by +31%. Bursa surpassed ?zmir by metro passengers in 2023. ?zmir and Adana had passenger falls -8%.

• During 2015-2023 , ?stanbul added 104 km new metro lines actively operating on its network; Ankara added 12 km new metro lines; Bursa and Adana kept the same length.

3.TRAM TRENDS BY CITIES

• 10 cities in Türkiye have tram passenger transport by year 2023: Antalya,Bursa,Eski?ehir,Gaziantep,?stanbul,?zmir,Kayseri,Kocaeli,Konya,Samsun.
• ?stanbul leads tram passengers (220 million including finiculars). Kayseri (photo above) with 50 million tram passengers stands 2nd, Eski?ehir is 3rd by 44 million.

• ?zmir leaded tram passenger growth by x8.5 folds (3.5million to 33.3million). Kocaeli passenger traffic moved from 3,6 million to 15,5million, Antalya 12million to 34 million.

• Tram data shows Eski?ehir (photo above) leads Türkiye by 55km tram line length in 2023. ?stanbul, Antalya and Kayseri follows as 2., 3. and 4.
• During 2015-2023, Antalya had line growth more than x3. ?zmir Bursa and Samsun had increased their tram line lengths more than x2. Tram spreaded wider than metro among cities.

• ?stanbul alone composed 63% of metro and 45% of tram passengers and also 58% of Metro line length and 14% of Tram line length of Türkiye (2023).

4.LIGHT RAIL SYSTEM (LRS) TRENDS

• Marmaray increased its ridership more than x3 and reached 207 million. By the end of2023, 40/45 active stations in Marmaray (B1+B2) were located in ?stanbul and 5/45 stations in Kocaeli.
• GaziRay of Gaziantep city was opened in November 2022. Ba?kentray of Ankara has increasing trend for passenger volume contrary to ?ZBAN of ?zmir with a slight decrease during 2015-2023.

• ?ZBAN is the leader by length (136km) followed by Marmaray(90km) 2023.
• ?zban's line extension did not reflect in its passenger volume trends unlike Marmaray from 13km to 90 km. Ba?kentRay length was stable but meanwhile it has increased its passengers.

5. TRAVEL PROPENSITY BY METRO & TRAM

• On average Türkiye has 11,4 metro trips and 5,7 tram trips per population in year 2023. 12 cities have metro or tram transport and country averages are about 81 cities.

• ?stanbul leads metro travel propensity in Türkiye by 39,5 trips per capita in year 2023, Bursa is over Ankara by 30,5 trips per capita compared to 27,4.
• Eski?ehir leads Tram travel propensity 48,7 trips per capita followed by Kayseri and Samsun.

6. FUTURE

• ?stanbul is likely to increase urban rail passengers both by new lines and by line-integration.
• Anatolian cities are in a fast progress for urban rail infrastructure. Additional infrastructure is planned both for new cities (Mersin, Trabzon, etc.) and for current cities (Kocaeli, Samsun,etc.).
• 101-year old-capital Ankara (6m. population) might have Tram in city center which lacks now.
• Urban rail transport can attract more focus in Türkiye with its proven benefits on fuel economy, environment, faster circulation of population, time savings, induced shopping in city center, rail equipment business and employment as well as car-free urban transport.

*Note: graphs are drawn by author by using published TurkStat Metro-Tram-LRS data; cover photo is self taken from Ankara metro.