Istanbul New Railway Tunnel linking Europe & Asia

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Turkey railway tunnel: Turkish officials wait outside a passenger train before the inauguration of tunnel called the Marmaray in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. Turkey is for the first time connecting its European and Asian sides with a railway tunnel set to open Tuesday, completing a plan initially proposed by an Ottoman sultan about 150 years ago. The Marmaray is among a number of large infrastructure projects under the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that have helped boost the economy but also have provoked a backlash of public protest.(AP)

 

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Turkey has opened an underwater railway tunnel linking Europe and Asia, and the two sides of Istanbul, realizing a plan initially proposed by an Ottoman sultan about 150 years ago.

The Marmaray tunnel runs under the Bosporus, the strait that connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and divides Istanbul between Asia and Europe. The tunnel is 13.6 kilometers (8.5 miles) long, including an underwater stretch of 1.4 kilometers (4,593 feet).

It is among a number of large infrastructure projects under the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that have helped boost the economy but also have provoked a backlash of public protest.

"I wish from God that the Marmaray that we are inaugurating will be a benefit to our Istanbul, to our country, to all of humanity," Erdogan said at the opening ceremony.

Officials hope that with up to 1.5 million passengers a day, the tunnel will ease some of Istanbul's chronic traffic, particularly over the two bridges linking the two sides of the city. A more distant dream is that the tunnel may become part of a new train route for rail travel between Western Europe and China.