TURKEY-SYRIA TRAINS RESUME

Rail passenger services between Turkey and Syria are set to resume soon after a nine-month break. Trains linking Turkey’s southern city of Mersin to Syria’s Aleppo were launched in March 2009 but withdrawn in September due to poor support. According to Torkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryollari (TCDD – the Turkish State Railway) regional director Hasan Tahsin Köprülü: “We were forced to cancel the service because the number of passengers dropped as low as nine on average.” The recent removal of visa requirements between the two countries has helped revive demand, especially among Turkish and Syrian business people. Dubbed the “friendship train,” the revived service is to run once a week.