Bosphorus Express
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 The Bosphorus Express at Bucharest North station, 16 August 2019. The first car heads towards Sofia, and the 2 couchettes head towards Istanbul. | |||||
| Overview | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service type | InterCity | ||||
| Status | Operating | ||||
| Locale | European Turkey, eastern Bulgaria, southern Romania | ||||
| Current operator(s) | TCDD, BDZ, CFR | ||||
| Route | |||||
| Termini | Sirkeci Terminal, Istanbul Gara de Nord, Bucharest | ||||
| Stops | 8 | ||||
| Average journey time | 13 hours, 29 minutes | ||||
| Service frequency | Daily each way | ||||
| Train number(s) | 81032, 492, 464 (westbound), 81031, 461 (eastbound) | ||||
| On-board services | |||||
| Sleeping arrangements | Private sleeping room accommodations and couchette cars | ||||
| Catering facilities | Dining car | ||||
| Baggage facilities | Yes | ||||
| Technical | |||||
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) | ||||
| Electrification | Istanbul to Kapıkule and Dimitrovgrad to Ruse | ||||
| Track owner(s) | TCDD Istanbul-Kapıkule BDŽ Kapitan Andreevo-Ruse CFR Giurgiu-Bucharest | ||||
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The Bosphorus Express, also known as the Trans Balkan Express (Turkish: Bosfor Ekspresi), is an international passenger train running between Istanbul, Turkey and Bucharest, Romania. It runs together with the Istanbul-Sofia Express until Dimitrovgrad upon entering Bulgaria, where the latter continues to Sofia. The train is jointly operated by three national railways: the TCDD Taşımacılık, the Bulgarian State Railways, and the Romanian State Railways. The train serves important cities like Istanbul, Edirne, Russe and Bucharest.
Stock
The train is pulled by a variety of locomotives in each country. Today the train consists of 3-4 cars usually mixed from the three railways. There are two Couchettes, either TCDD Intercity stock or CFR 40-31/44-31 stock, a single coach car, either TCDD or CFR, and a CFR sleeping car. Since the train uses electrified and non-electrified track, locomotives pulling the train also change. From Istanbul, the train is pulled by an E43000 electric locomotive until Kapıkule, where a BDŽ class-07 diesel locomotive becomes the motive power. At Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria, the BDŽ class-07 de-couples and either a BDŽ class-43 or a BDZ class-45 electric locomotive couples onto the train. At Russe, the BDŽ electric locomotive changes with a Romanian class-65 diesel locomotive, which pulls the train to Bucharest.
The following configurations are typically used today:
Bucharest-Russe
- CFR Class-65 Locomotive
- CFR Couchette
- TCDD Couchette
Russe-Gorna Oryahovitsa
- BDŽ Class-43 or BDŽ Class-45 Locomotive
- CFR Couchette
- TCDD Couchette
- BDŽ Coach
Gorna Oryahovitsa-Dimitrovgrad
- BDŽ Class-43 or BDŽ Class-45 Locomotive
- TCDD Couchette
- BDŽ Coach
Dimitrovgrad-Kapıkule
- BDŽ Class-07 Locomotive
- TCDD Couchette
- TCDD Couchette
Kapıkule-İstanbul
- TCDD E68000 Locomotive
- TCDD Couchette
- TCDD Couchette
Between Russe and Dimitrovgrad, 1 or 2 BDŽ Coaches are added to the train for domestic travel.
Route
The journey starts by bus for 43 km at Istanbul's Sirkeci Terminal. After Edirne it arrives at the town of Kapıkule on the Turkish-Bulgarian border. The electric locomotive disconnects and is replaced with a diesel locomotive Passengers need to disembark and cross the rail tracks to clear passport control. After the city of Gorna Oryahovitsa, the train arrives at the city of Ruse on the Danube river. A diesel locomotive once again takes over, and it crosses the Danube via the Danube Bridge and into the Romanian town of Giurgiu, stopping at the Giurgiu North Railway Station. Then it continues north to Bucharest. After winding its way around the city, the train enters Bucharest from the northwest into Gara de Nord station (Bucharest North).
References
External links
Media related to Bosphorus Express at Wikimedia Commons