Bosphorus Express

Bosphorus Express
Bosfor Ekspresi
	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
Start	Sirkeci Terminal, Istanbul
Stops	8
End	Gara de Nord, Bucharest
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) standard gauge
Electrification	Istanbul to Kapıkule and Dimitrovgrad to Ruse
Track owner(s)	TCDD Istanbul-Kapıkule; BDŽ Kapitan Andreevo-Ruse; CFR Giurgiu-Bucharest
Route map
Route map

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, the BDZ, and the CFR. The train serves important cities like Istanbul, Edirne, Stara Zagora 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 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 Marmaray suburban train for 27 km from Istanbul's Sirkeci Terminal to Halkali station. The Bosphorus Express departs from Halkali station towards Edirne. 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 . 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