Dogu Ekspresi – Ankara to Kars

Dogu Ekspresi on Platform 1 - Ankara Gar

Dogu Ekspresi on Platform 1 – Ankara Gar

Dogu Ekpresi from Ankara to Kars

or 24 Hours and 1,200 kilometres through a beautiful part of eastern Turkey

There were two reasons to go through Turkey on the way from Albania to Georgia. The first was to visit the Ayasofya in Istanbul, the second to take the overnight train from Ankara to Kars (in the far eats of Turkey). The first was aborted. The crowds were horrendous, even early in the morning, and the experience inside the building wouldn’t have been too good if I had had the patience to wait in the queue. The second was achieved and was well worth it.

Although the information below has already been posted on this blog in relation to the ‘High Speed’ train from Istanbul to Ankara it won’t do any harm to repeat it here.

Booking

There are different routes to booking websites whatever you want to buy. However, I have found that many of those routes lead to a dead end, especially if you want to go to a page in a language other than the native one.

I found the TCDD site here the one that worked for me.

Book as long in advance as possible. I’m not talking about months as the tickets aren’t released until a few weeks but if you leave it to a matter of days then you will be pushed for choice.

So the process

Once on the site click on ‘English’ in the top tight corner. If it doesn’t go to English try until it does. Then choose your starting point and destination, the date of departure then whether you want single or return and, if so, the date. Click Continue.

This brings up the available trains on your date. Decide a time, click on the arrow for the drop down menu for class of travel, i.e., Pullman or Örtülü Kuşetli (4 berth Couchette). Click select. The price for your class of travel will be shown. Click Continue at the bottom of the page.

Then will come up a diagrammatic representation of the carriage with the class you selected. Click on your choice of seat WITHOUT a cartoon face of a man or woman. You will be asked to select your gender and if the system likes you the seat will be selected for you. The system will not allow you to choose a compartment if it already has a booking from a person of a different gender and an error message will come up. Presumably that’s not the case if you are booking as a couple or group. Scroll down and fill in your personal details. Once completed click continue.

This will take you to the payment page. Remember – at least those from EU countries (and even the UK as it is about to leave) if you attempt to make a payment with a debit/credit card from now on you will get a code sent to your registered mobile number so have your phone handy. The code is only valid for about 10 minutes. Complete all transactions requested and you will receive confirmation of a ticket. This will also be sent to your email address.

Cost

Pullman (reclining seat, 3 abreast) TL 58

Örtülü Kuşetli 1.Mevkii (Business) (4 berth couchette) TL 77.50

Ust is the upper bunk, Alt the lower.

If the finances allow it I would suggest going in the couchette, it makes for a much more relaxing journey – unless you are interested in experiencing the real Turkey when on a train.

As far as I can see these prices don’t change depending upon when you book – as is the case in the UK.

(There’s also the option of taking the Tourist Dogu Ekpresi. Here you travel in a 2 berth couchette and the cost is TL 480. It takes 1 day, 7 hours and 3 minutes, departing at 16.55 and arriving at 23.58 the following day. It only departs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The extra time is to allow for side trips along the way. I also assume that all meals are included.)

Journey Time

24 hours and 13 minutes.

Depart Day 1 at 18.00, arrive Day 2 at 18.13.

Departure from Ankara

Unless you are already in Ankara you might well have done what I did and that was to arrive in Ankara on the ‘High Speed’ Train from Istanbul earlier in the day. If you did then the train from Istanbul arrives in the enormous, new station. To get to the old station you take the bridge between the old and the new, just where people are having to go through a security check to get into the High Speed system, on the north-east of the new building.

If you have plenty of time and are interested in Turkish Railway history you might want to visit the Railway Museum which is on Platform 1 of the old station. It’s open from 09.00-12.00 and then 13.00 to 17.00. I don’t know anything about it as I didn’t discover the place until after 17.00.

It’s on this platform (No. 1) that the Dogu Ekspresi leaves. On the day I made the journey the train pulled into the platform at 17.00 on the dot, a full hour before scheduled departure. There will always be a lot of people ready to get on the train at that time as most of the passengers will be travelling with a lot of luggage and there’s a ‘fight’ to find a space. This is bad enough in the couchettes, what it’s like in the seated accommodation I hate to think. Although there’s a separate baggage car very few people use it for their personal luggage – whether it’s even possible I’m not sure. But unless trains provide for what is happening everyday (that is, with more luggage space in the carriages) then the authorities should find some way to mitigate the chaos that proceeds every departure.

When the attendant comes to check just after departure you do not necessarily need a printed ticket. The two young lads in my compartment just gave their names and as they appeared on the system in that compartment that was sufficient. I offered my passport and that was enough.

An old carriage and a very new station in Ankara

An old carriage and a very new station in Ankara

The journey itself

The train left at 18.00 exact. My compartment was had its full complement on leaving Ankara, a old Turkish man (a couple of years older than myself, I later discovered) and two young students going to the University town of Erzurum (20 hours away) for the start of the academic year. Only one of the students had any real English and I had absolutely no Turkish – having been in the country for less than a week I hadn’t even mastered the basics of ‘please’ and ‘thank you’

This turned out to be one of those long train journeys where I had the privilege of being on the receiving end of local hospitality. Amongst all the luggage the older man had brought with him was a largish cardboard box. This was to provide sustenance to the four of us for the best part of a day.

Soon after departure, using an old piece of newspaper as a table cloth, he brought out some apples and oranges and after peeling them both with his pocket knife proceeded to pass the fruit around. I hadn’t pre-prepared anything and was just going to see what happened food and drink wise. As it worked out I didn’t need to do anything – although if I had brought something I could have least have added something to the party. (Perhaps by not doing so I was being somewhat selfish and not really getting into the spirit of things.) And he brought out more fruit as the evening wore on. After the beds had been prepared he asked, by sign language, if I wanted to eat but I refused. There was obviously more there than he would need himself.

His box came out just after midday on the second day for lunch – which also had more than enough to feed the four of us.

Food preparation for the journey

The two other young Turks didn’t seem to have prepared for the journey any better than me. Perhaps they were going to depend upon opportunities along the route, as I was. There was a basic restaurant section in one of the other carriages but it didn’t seem to have a wide selection, other than providing tea and coffee. As I didn’t need to I didn’t do much more than have a brief look at one time. I though they might have prepared some sort of breakfast but that wasn’t the case either.

Travelling in a country with a Muslim culture

A few minutes to 19.00 there was a short episode of confusion. I was asked to move from where I was sitting near to the door. I was initially reluctant to do so as I didn’t understand why. With a little bit of ‘explanation’ I eventually realised that the older man wanted to kneel on the seat I had been sitting on as this was the closest he could get in the carriage to facing east in order to pray. He turned his ordinary street hat back to front (simulating a skull cap) and proceeded to pray. The three of us left him to it. Me to look out the window the two young men to get their nicotine fix. (In theory there should be no smoking anywhere on the train but every end of carriage would have smokers there at regular intervals for the next 24 hours.)

He repeated this exercise at 20.00 and then I think it was some time in the early afternoon of the next day that he did so again – but that time I was watching the world go by through the windows in the corridor of the carriage.

Early to bed

Not long after leaving Ankara the attendant had distributed packs of bedding to every compartment. Unlike on some train networks it is the attendant who actually makes up the beds this is not the case on the Turkish Railways – the distribution (and later collection) of the bedding is as far as it goes. That’s not a problem apart from the fact that the design of the lower bunk was that it was supposed to be locked – by a large key which the attendant would hold – but as he played no part in the preparation for sleep that lock was permanently open. Not a real problem until the person next to you decided to use the arm rests to raise themselves – in the process throwing anyone else on that side forward. And however much this happened you would always forget the consequences of an unthought about movement.

Come 21.30, more or less, there was a move to prepare the beds and soon people were in their assigned areas. But by 22.00 I was only one who was not away in dreamland. From my experience an early night always seems to accompany overnight train travel.

Control of the light

I’m happy with that ‘early to bed’ culture. What it provides me with is the vital ‘control of the light’. And this is why travelling in the Pullman carriages would have been so unsatisfactory for me. In an overnight carriage with the internal lights on all you see is yourself and your neighbours. The outside world remains a mystery as the light pollution is so intense.

On the other hand if you can turn off all lights, with the compartment door closed, it’s as dark inside the carriage as it is outside, if not darker. So what you are passing becomes like a film where all that happens can be witnessed. Even the stars become visible – but not so much on the night I was travelling. This was one of the great joys of my time on the Trans-Siberian on the DPRK train.

These are the ideal circumstances in which to let your mind wander, watch whatever might be happening as you pass and let the effects of the raki (the last of which I had bought in Albania and which had been saved for this very moment) decide when you actually go to sleep.

Speed of the train

The train was pulled by a couple of twinned diesel locomotives – although the exact two changed a number of times during the course of the journey, probably every four to six hours, perhaps depending upon the terrain and the schedule they followed.

The power for the first part of the journey

The power for the first part of the journey

But there were times, especially after everyone else crashed out, that the train was able to gather quite a speed on the plains. It was also able to do so on later parts of the journey the following day. But at times when going through the mountains the speed was little more than walking pace as it climbed whilst at the same time following a twisting route through the mountains.

However, by the end of the journey the average speed was, more or less, 50km/h.

Waking up

I might have been the last to go to sleep the night before but I was also the first to stir the next morning, just a little before 06.30. The last I remembered we were racing along, passing towns and small villages, but when I looked out the window in the morning we were in the mountains and the train was crawling along a twisting track that was also gradually climbing. At that time I measured our height at about 1,200m and continuing to climb

Breakfast

But I wasn’t the only one awake for long as the older Turk soon woke up and almost immediately pulled the cardboard box from under the seat and brought out bread, cheese, tomatoes and peppers – shook a carton of drinkable yogurt – and that was the meal we shared between us at about 07.00. It was a couple of hours before the young Turks stirred so as there was no real communication between us after finishing breakfast. We just sat there and watched the world go by.

A word about tomatoes

I’ve probably had more tomatoes during this most recent trip than at any equivalent period in the past. They appeared in the regular breakfasts on offer in both Albania and Turkey. That repetition could become boring if they were not such good tomatoes. Anyone who has had to suffer the excuses for tomatoes that are offered for sale in whatever outlet in Britain has forgotten what a good tomato looks and tastes like. They are rarely red and are devoid of any taste whatsoever. I might be taking Tesco to court over the Trades Description Act on my return.

A word about the sanitary conditions

Whereas on the train from Istanbul to Ankara there were the western toilets on this overnight train you have to deal with the squat version. Not a problem but it doesn’t get any easier when the train is moving.

The terrain

I think someone in Turkish Railways had put a bit of thought into the timetable for the departure of the Dogu Ekspresi, whether from Ankara or Kars. Departing Ankara at 18.00 means it is when people are waking that the train makes its way through the mountains and the more interesting scenery. For the next twelve hours that scenery changes but is still like a nature film with a never ending story. The scheduled arrival in Kars just after 18.00 means that the most advantage has been made of the light. Likewise the departure from Kars is at 08.00 (arriving in Ankara at 08.22 the next day) and so the most interesting landscapes are passed through in daylight. This will take a bit of a blow, in both directions, when the days get shorter in the winter but the timetable gives the best in all circumstances.

Fortunately it was a beautiful and bright sunny autumn morning on the second day of the journey. As the day wore on and as the train reached heights of more than 2,300 metres it was clear that autumn was setting in. At lower levels the trees were just on the turn whilst at the highest levels the leaves on some of the trees had already turned to a bright yellow.

But as is always the case in 21st century societies what you perceive as nature is the result of intervention on a massive scale. Turkey has experienced a rapid expansion in dam building in the last 10-15 years or so, both to ensure potable water supplies as well as for the generation of electricity through the construction of hydro power plants. These create lakes in the mountains where before there were just valleys and, no doubt, there have been more than a few villages lost in the process.

But autumn is before the rains of winter or the arrival of the snow melt from the high peaks in the spring so all the lakes were relatively low whilst not giving the impression that there was any water shortage as such. But it must have been a hot summer as all the land looked particularly parched and most of the agriculture seemed to rely on some form of artificial irrigation.

In the, roughly, 600kms of daylight on the second day the route was bound to take us past various rock formations and as the train moved steadily east we passed sandstone, limestone and then volcanic formations – even at one time, in the late afternoon, similar to those found at Cappadocia, but on a much lesser scale. We were also reminded that Turkey is still in an active and ever changing tectonic location and this could be seen by the way the layers of rock had been twisted and turned by the upward movement of the land.

When the train was crawling slowly through the narrow gorges you are reminded of the effort it takes to build these lines. Now machines can cut through mountains like a hot knife through butter but systems created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries depended upon sheer muscle power. This is evident out in the open but becomes even more so when passing through the innumerable tunnels that lie along the route – many of which took major turns in the dark.

In Turkey, at least at the moment, this huge amount of expended labour power is not going to waste, not like the criminal waste that can be seen in some other eastern European countries, notably Albania. However, even on this route there were signs that lack of investment in the rail infrastructure had led to the run down of certain services with abandoned rolling stock, bogies etc., beside the track in out of the way and isolated places and for no apparent reason – at least as far as I could see.

It’s really only on a train journey, especially when the train has to take it steady due to the difficult terrain, that you can appreciate what you are passing. Not only is it the lower speed of the train compared to road vehicles that helps in this but you are also much higher up and have panoramic windows from which to view the world as you pass through it. The journey from Istanbul-Ankara on the so-called ‘High Speed Train’ was exhilarating when it was topping 250km/h but the journey was more interesting when going slowly through the industrial areas or the mountain ranges between the two major Turkish cities.

For much of the journey the land in the countryside was dominated by arable cultivation – with the production of an incredible amount of maize being most evident. However the further east the train progressed the lower, presumably, the fertility of the land and then what was most evident were the huge herds of beef cattle – together with fields devoted to winter fodder for the animals.

These weren’t the size you would normally see further west but were on a scale, at times, which remind you of ‘Rawhide’ and Wagon Train’ – for those old enough to remember them on TV. And there seemed to be no restriction on where they could go, there being few fences or barriers to prevent them grazing either on wild vegetation or whatever was edible in a field where the crop had already been harvested. In fact, in the latter the passing through of the cattle had the effect of providing natural manure for the next year’s crop.

These large herds of cattle, whether communal or privately owned, also started to have a real visual effect on the small villages that the train was passing on an ever more regular basis. You could make out barns for winter shelter – this was now quite high ground and the winters would be severe – as well as huge piles of straw and hay covered with vast sheets of (mainly) blue plastic. This gave a very distinctive look to the villages at this time of year as preparations were being made to be able to confront and survive the long, cold and dark days of winter.

But that all seemed a long way away as I looked out at bright blue skies and the warmth of the sun coming through the window making for a very pleasant journey.

On my own

With the lack of a lingua franca inside the compartment, and after I had said I was going all the way to Kars, I was of the understanding that everyone else was as well. Also my poor knowledge of Turkish geography, and the fact that I didn’t have a good paper map (indispensable on any long train journey) I wasn’t aware that about 4 hours from the end of my journey was the large University town of Erzurum. As we were getting closer to the city my three travelling companions started to prepare for leaving – me standing there a little perplexed as I thought they were getting off the same station as me.

There weren’t that many station stops on this long journey. Two of them must have occurred overnight and the only other stop had been at about 10.30 that morning when the train stopped for about 15-20 minutes at Erzincan.

Destination Board - Dogu Ekspresi

Destination Board – Dogu Ekspresi

Matters were clarified and we bid our farewells and I was left on my own – in fact there weren’t that many other people in my carriage after leaving Ersurum – and I assume the rest of the train. Although it was good to have the companionship of the three Turks all the way from Ankara it was now also good to have some time entirely to myself. The only ‘interruption’ being the attendant collecting the bedding from the night before.

Four or so hours later, about 15 minutes late, the trains pulled into the town of Kars, just as it was starting to get dark.

Carriage No 7 - and my home for 24 hours

Carriage No 7 – and my home for 24 hours

Istanbul to Ankara by ‘High Speed Train’

Turkish High Speed Trains - YHT - in Ankara Station

Turkish High Speed Trains – YHT – in Ankara Station

Istanbul to Ankara by ‘High Speed Train

or all you need to know about travelling on intercity trains in Turkey …. well perhaps not all but enough for you to get by before you really understand how the system works.

This post (and the one that follows) will concentrate on a couple of journeys made (the first from Istanbul to Ankara on the High Speed Train, the second the overnight train from Ankara to Kars) at the end of September 2019. I plan to provide enough information for the first time visitor to Turkey and someone who doesn’t have a word of the language.

Obviously the internet makes life much easier now but there are always little snippets of information that you only acquire by luck or circumstance – the latter being knowledge gained after you had made a mistake (if only we knew then what we know now).

Booking

There are different routes to booking websites whatever you want to buy. However, I have found that many of those routes lead to a dead end, especially if you want to go to a page in a language other than the native one.

High Speed Train from Istanbul to Ankara

Book as long in advance as possible. I’m not talking about months as the tickets aren’t released until a few weeks but if you leave it to a matter of days then you will be pushed for choice. I ended getting the last seat in the Business Plus class.

It was not really the last seat but the last seat that a male could buy. When booking train seats in Turkey you have to declare your gender. Of the two seats in the car one was a double seat where a female had already booked. When I clicked on that one it refused the request. When I clicked on the lone seat, at the end of the carriage by the entrance/exit to the next carriage, all was OK.

So the process:

Once on the site click on ‘English’ in the top tight corner. If it doesn’t go to English try until it does. Then choose your starting point and destination, the date of departure then whether you want single or return and, if so, the date. Click Continue.

This brings up the available trains on your date. Decide a time, click on the arrow for the drop down menu for class of travel, i.e., economy, business or business plus and choose. Click select. The price for your class of travel will be shown. Click Continue at the bottom of the page.

Then will come up a diagrammatic representation of the carriage with the class you selected. Click on your choice of seat WITHOUT a cartoon face of a man or woman. Remember what I said above about the system not liking a male to choose a seat next to a female who had booked before you. (Here, I assume, there is no problem if a woman is comfortable sitting next to a man.)

You will be asked to select your gender and if the system likes you the seat will be selected for you. Scroll down and fill in your personal details. Once completed click continue.

This will take you to the payment page. Remember – at least those from EU countries (and even the UK as it is about to leave) if you attempt to make a payment with a debit/credit card from now on you will get a code sent to your registered mobile number so have your phone handy. The code is only valid for about 10 minutes. Complete all transactions requested and you will receive confirmation of a ticket. This will also be sent to your email address.

However, you do not need to print the ticket. At the station of departure you will be asked for your Passport/ID and if the name appears on the system you will be given a small print out with your carriage and seat number.

Cost

Economy TL71

Business TL103

Business Plus TL127.50

As far as I can see these prices don’t change depending upon when you book – as is the case in the UK.

Journey Time

I was planning to continue on from Ankara on the overnight train to Kars. The ideal train – for a shorter waiting time in Ankara Station – would have been the 11.45, arriving at 16.10. However, I left booking a little late and had to catch the earlier 09.15. That was scheduled to arrive in Ankara Gar at 13.52. As it was it was about 15 minutes late. All trains from Istanbul to Ankara with the high speed train (YHT-TCDD) take, more or less, 4 and a half hours.

Arrival at Söğütlüçeşme

Söğütlüçeşme is on the ‘Asian’ side of Istanbul and the departure station to Ankara. Wherever you are staying in Istanbul get to the Marmaray Metro line and head east. The Bosphorus are indicated with a blue lake on the destination board. From the old part of Istanbul, where most people will be staying, it’s only 3 or 4 stops, say 10 to 15 minutes.

On arrival at Söğütlüçeşme go down the escalator/stairs to the lower concourse. Near to the southern entrance to the station you will see an X-ray machine and metal detector gates. Also security. You can’t go through here at any time unless there’s a train about to depart.

Put all your bags on the conveyor for the machine and go through the metal detector gate. Immediately in front of your are a couple of desks. Show your Passport/ID and if your name comes up you will be given a little ticket, as stated above.

Head upstairs and look for your carriage and then your seat. It leaves promptly.

Wifi on the train

At least in the Business class carriage there’s free wifi and (the tunnels not withstanding) quite fast. You have to register on a TCDD log-in page with the PNR number that was on your booking confirmation (so remember to make a note of that) as well as your seat number. If the two match up you will be connected. (The PNR number is also on the slip given to you downstairs.)

Power socket

All seats have a two round pin socket just below the seat. I didn’t see any USB sockets.

What do you get for the extra you pay for the Business Plus?

About 30 minutes after departure the catering staff came around with aircraft style food trolleys. They offered the passengers in those seats a little tray with; three small pieces of cheese (one of them spreadable; a few cherry tomatoes, a small dish of olives; a small dish with dried apricots and chopped walnuts; a small bread roll; a piece of baklava with a small jar of honey; a small container of still water; and the choice of tea or coffee. As well as the hot drinks you could also ask for more water or fruit juices.

I thought that for the TL24 extra on top of the business class price that was quite good. Just over £3.00, and brought to your seat. Also the staff came around on two further occasions during the trip with the offer of more cold and/or hot drinks. As I had an early start and missed breakfast it arrived at a good time.

I assume the Business class passengers get the offer of free drinks but not the food.

Cafe/shop on board

If you don’t do Business Plus and haven’t brought anything to eat/drink with you there’s a small bar in carriage No 2. These trains operate as units and this should always be the case. They didn’t have a big selection but you could get sandwiches, biscuits and other sweet things, as well as drinks. I didn’t buy anything so can’t give a price. But as with all transport throughout the world the cost will be greater than if you bought the same stuff in a supermarket before arriving at the station.

High Speed Train?

Yes – and no. We had been travelling for more than an hour before the train reached a speed of 100 km/h. There’s a screen in the back of the seat in front of you as well as two or three bigger ones from the ceiling along the length of the carriage. They become quiet hypnotic – especially when the speeds start to pick up.

It would be better to call it an Express Train with the capability of being a truly High Speed Train like the TGV in France, the AVE in Spain or the HSR in China.

But that fact made it a more pleasant and interesting journey.

I thought it might be ‘light the blue torch paper and stand back’. But it was nothing of the kind. It’s quite a convoluted circuit to get out of a city that was built long before high speed trains were thought of. The line is a dedicated track but it is not always possible for it to reach the potential speeds of the motor itself.

There were also three pick-up stations quite close to the start so those who may be living further east than Söğütlüçeşme station don’t need to go to there to catch the train.

As it weaves its way through the suburbs you start to get a view of life you probably wouldn’t have seen if you were there as a incidental tourist. It passes through rich areas, close to the sea, where there are large yachts in the marinas. There are small holiday resorts with bars and restaurants that look out on to the Mediterranean.

Later it passes through industrial areas where there are various factories, docks – both for small cargo ships and then there’s a major container terminal – it also passes right through the middle of two not insignificant oil refineries – which I didn’t think would happen in countries further west in Europe.

At times the line ran within a few metres of the water line and you could look out and see freighters of various sizes, from those that just plied the coast of Turkey to bigger, ocean going container ships. There were even a couple of small warships.

The line passed under the bridge that spans the Sea of Mamara.

For most of that time the maximum speed was little more than 50-60 km/h but then, quite suddenly it sped up and reached a speed of 230 km/h for a few minutes before having to slow again as the line twisted and turned (but without going significantly higher) through small mountains and river systems.

There were a number of station stops but they were very quick, barely enough time for nicotine addicts to get their fix.

The route then left the urbanisation and industrialisation of Istanbul behind and the scenes became more rural, passing through small villages and quite intensive agriculture. A lot of maize and then a sizeable amount of autumn fruits; pomegranates, apples, plums, chestnuts, some grapes.

It was also possible to see that the year was changing. Although the temperatures were still in the mid to high 20s it was noticeable that the leaves on the trees in the hills and mountains on either side of the line were starting to turn. Autumn may not be here quite yet but it’s not that far away.

Speeds started to pick up and the top speed of 250 km/h was being reached on more and more occasions – and for longer stretches. This was even through significantly long tunnels where the train didn’t slow at all but still remained in the dark for a few minutes. And there were quite a few of them at various parts of the route.

Together with the motorway system, which the train line at times parallels and at others crosses, there has obviously been a major investment in the transport infrastructure of this part of eastern Turkey. Whether that extends beyond Ankara I will find out in due course.

The achievements of the navvies in the construction of first the canal system and then the railways in the UK at the end of the 18th and into the middle of the 19th centuries were amazing achievements as all the cuttings and embankments were constructed by sheer force of muscle. But the new projects show what huge advances there have been in earth moving technology and huge cuttings are the norm rather than the exception.

The name ‘High Speed Train’ came into its own during the last hour or so of the journey. Once past the town of Eskisehir, the route went through a Plain. Flat as a pancake and seeming to go on forever – on all sides. Here sustained speeds of 240-250 km/h became the norm and, apart from one stop half way through this stretch, continued until reaching a commuter town for Ankara.

This plain was dominated by maize production as well as that of other cereal crops, many of them already harvested. I was a little surprised to see no real evidence of livestock rearing, apart from the occasional small flock of sheep.

I wouldn’t say it was a bleak landscape but there were a few blocks of relatively new flats on the outskirts of a town about 30 minutes from Ankara. Everything around the buildings was brown, dusty and parched with no greenery. Perhaps that changes with the coming autumn and winter but at the end of summer it looked sparse.

What else to say?

Perhaps all the locals are used to it but at regular intervals it felt as if something had hit the bottom of the carriage. This banging was, if I’ve got it right, the hydraulic brake system resetting itself but you hear, and feel, this thump all along the route.

As the British are obsessed with the state of the toilets I can reveal here that there were as good as any you’ll find on the British railway system – and probably better than some.

Finally, in regards the journey. There’s a stop in a small town about 15 minutes from the centre of Ankara. My train arrived at that stop at the time it was scheduled to arrive in Ankara Gar. Just a warning that it would cause problems if you got out thinking you had reached the end of the journey. Unfortunately, Turkish stations don’t seem to be very well signed on the platforms – although the name of the station comes up on the digital display board at the end of the carriage.

Arrival at Ankara Gar

The YHT station is separate from the general station. It’s a huge building, underused and obviously some sort of vanity project for some politician or political party which is just too big for the amount of traffic that passes through it – or will ever pass through it.

Within this structure, as well as access to the platforms there are shops, cafes and the ubiquitous fast food chains – some international some national. And a lot of empty space.

If the weather is good and you have time to spare you could do worse than go up to the top (second floor British) and go out on the huge veranda that looks down on the older station as well as a sizeable chunk of Ankara disappearing away into the hills on the horizon. Won’t, personally, be seeing much more of Ankara than the station myself on this visit but can’t say I’m over-impressed by what I’ve seen so far.

Now have to wait a few hours now before the next stage of the journey begins.