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Marmaray, the rail line connecting Istanbul's European and Asian sides, has carried 1.6 billion passengers in 13 years, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said in a written statement.
Uraloglu said about 181 million passengers used the line in the first 10 months of 2026.
According to the minister, Marmaray set a new daily record on Oct. 6, carrying 762,870 passengers and surpassing its own previous figure.
Uraloglu noted that groundwork for Marmaray began in August 2004 and the line opened to service on Oct. 29, 2013. He said the immersed tube tunnel reaches 60 meters (197 feet) below sea level and connects Asia and Europe by rail in four minutes.
The tunnel runs under the Bosporus, the waterway that divides Istanbul between two continents. Not in source. The name Marmaray combines Marmara, the sea south of Istanbul, and “ray,” the Turkish word for rail. Not in source.
The line runs 76.6 kilometers (47.6 miles) between Halkali and Gebze and has 43 stations. Halkali lies on Istanbul’s western edge in Europe, while Gebze is in Kocaeli province, east of Istanbul on the Asian side.
Uraloglu said Marmaray operates in integration with Istanbul's metro, Metrobus, tram, and sea transport networks, and that the line eases daily travel by saving passengers time.
Marmaray runs 287 trips per day on the Halkali-Gebze and Pendik-Atakoy routes. Pendik is a district on Istanbul’s Asian side, while Atakoy is a coastal district on the European side. Ten additional weekend night trips raise the total to 297.
The fleet consists of 54 train sets and 440 cars. Of the sets, 34 have 10 cars and 20 have five cars.
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