Türkiye has signed the first phase of a financing package worth up to 1.5 billion dollars with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank for the mammoth Istanbul North Rail Crossing Project (INRAIL). Set to remove the city’s main cross-Bosphorus rail bottleneck and boost freight flows between Asia and Europe, the scheme is expected to cut transit times across Istanbul by more than nine hours.
Plans for a new 127-kilometre rail link across the Bosphorus on Istanbul’s Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge have secured fresh financial backing, with AIIB signing the first phase of a package worth up to 1.5 billion dollars. The package would cover just under 20% of the project’s estimated 8.27 billion-dollar cost, but the deal is still one of the bank’s largest transport investments in Türkiye.
Known as INRAIL, the double-track electrified railway would connect Çayırova on the Asian side of Istanbul with Çatalca on the European side, creating a northern alternative to the existing Marmaray corridor for both freight and passenger traffic.
Under the plan, freight trains would operate at between 80 and 120 km/h, while passenger services would run at up to 160 km/h, connecting Istanbul’s two main airports with the high-speed rail network. By diverting more through freight away from the congested central corridor and separating it from passenger traffic, the line is expected to reduce journey times between Çayırova and Çatalca from around 13 hours to 3.6 hours. It is also projected to cut emissions by around 16 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent over its operating life.
Assembling 8.27 billion dollars in financing
The agreement is the latest step in assembling financing for INRAIL, which remains in the development phase. Türkiye launched the project’s environmental assessment in 2025, before the World Bank approved a 2 billion-dollar loan and the Asian Development Bank committed 750 million dollars earlier this year.
Together with the Islamic Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and OPEC Fund for International Development, the six development banks are expected to provide 6.75 billion dollars. Türkiye is expected to provide the remaining 1.52 billion dollars.
AIIB did not disclose how much of the 1.5 billion dollars had been committed under the first signed phase, but AIIB investment chief Konstantin Limitovskiy described INRAIL as ‘one of AIIB’s most significant connectivity operations to date’.
Kerem Dönmez, director-general of foreign economic relations at Türkiye’s Ministry of Treasury and Finance, said the financing would support the country’s wider transport strategy. ‘The project will strengthen the competitiveness of the Middle Corridor, enhance logistics efficiency, support greener transport, and create long-term economic value for Türkiye and the region’, he said.
Rail Freight Summit
The INRAIL project will be one of the main themes of the upcoming RailFreight Summit, which will be held at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Istanbul on 9 and 10 November 2026. The event will focus on developments in Türkiye and along the Middle Corridor to improve trade between China, Central Asia and Europe.
As the programme shapes up, the first speakers have already been confirmed: transport expert Kris Kosmala and Martin Koubek, Head of Silk Road and CIS at at Metrans. If you are interested in becoming a speaker, submit your proposal through our call for papers. Stay up to date on information about the RailFreight Summit including more speakers, ticket sales and networking opportunities here.
