Haydarpaşa railway station
Haydarpaşa station (Turkish: Haydarpaşa Garı) is a railway station in Istanbul, that was, until 2012 the main city terminal for trains travelling to and from the Anatolian side of Turkey. It used to be Turkey's busiest railway station. (Its counterpart on the European side of the city was Sirkeci station which served train services to and from the Thracian side of the country.) The station building still houses the headquarters for District 1 of the State Railways but since a fire in 2010 the station has not been in use and its future remains uncertain.
HAYDARPAŞA | |
---|---|
Front facade of the station building. | |
General information | |
Location | Haydarpaşa Gar Sk., Rasimpaşa Mah., 34716 Kadıköy, Istanbul Turkey |
Coordinates | 40.9962°N 29.0187°E |
Owned by | Turkish State Railways |
Line(s) | Istanbul-Ankara railway |
Platforms | 6 Bay platforms |
Tracks | 9 |
Construction | |
Structure type | At-grade |
Parking | For employees only |
Architect | Otto Ritter, Helmuth Conu |
Architectural style | German Neoclassical |
Other information | |
Status | Under renovation |
History | |
Opened | 22 September 1872 |
Closed | 19 June 2013 |
Rebuilt | 1908 |
Electrified | 29 May 1969 25 kV AC, 60 Hz |
Location | |
Haydarpaşa stands on an embankment over the Bosphorus just south of the Port of Haydarpaşa (one of the main container terminals in Turkey) and is slightly north of busy Kadıköy. Until the rail service was suspended, ferry services connected it to Eminönü, Karaköy and Kadıköy.
The closure of the station has been very controversial and a group known as the Haydarpaşa Solidarity Group (Turkish: Haydarpaşa Dayanışması) has staged regular protest sit-ins in front of it amid fears that the station and port would be sold; a plan involving seven skyscrapers provoked especially strong adverse reaction. In December 2015, the reintegration of Haydarpaşa station into the Marmaray network was theoretically approved along with the restoration and rehabilitation of the station building and platforms. However, in 2022 its future still remained unclear.