Following a January 15 2010 agreement between the Turkish, Syrian and Iraqi railways, passenger services between Mosul in Iraq and Gaziantep in Turkey are restarting this week.
The first train left Mosul on February 16 and was due to arrive in Gaziantep at 08.30 the next day, having passed through Syrian en route. The return journey sets off on February 18. “Economic, social and cultural ties will contribute to the development of the Gaziantep-Mosul passenger train” says TCDD.
The regular weekly service will leave Mosul at 12:00 on Tuesdays and Gaziantep at 21:00 on Thursdays, with a total journey time of 18 hours including the border formalities. A ticket is €25, or €35 in a couchette.
(disclaimer: this is based on a machine translation of the announcement on the TCDD website. Don’t blame me if you get stuck in the middle of nowhere!)
The BBC has a report Iraq-Turkey railway link re-opens, with a basic map of the Berlin – Baghdad route(!).
Timetables: http://www.tcdd.gov.tr/home/detail/?id=234
Thanks alot for this update.
hope we can see all the line opened in the near future
According to seat61.com, the line has closed (http://www.seat61.com/Turkey2.htm#Other%20international).
Can anyone confirm this please ?
I have recently been to Gaziantep station. I asked about the train to Mosul and I was told that it has stopped running.
I asked if it will re-open but he told me does not know. I dont think we will not see it re-open anytime soon.
I guess it only ran from Feb to around April, so maybe a total of 8 journeys.