Six international lenders have extended a helping hand to Türkiye, transport minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu announced. With a total of 6.75 billion dollars they are positioning the country to build the Northern Ring Railway project. It is set to increase the cross-Bosphorus rail freight capacity many times over.
The Northern Ring Railway project, which RailFreight.com wrote about earlier under the name “Northern Railway Crossing” and abbreviated as INRAIL, will bypass Istanbul’s urban core. Moreover, it will connect the city’s two airports (Istanbul Airport and Sabiha Gökçen Airport) and allow air-to-rail transshipment.
However, the key upgrade provided by the 125-kilometre long INRAIL line is its massive capacity boost. Rail freight operations across the Bosphorus now take place during limited nighttime hours through the Marmaray tunnel. This facilitated a total of just 1.7 million tonnes of cross-Bosphorus rail freight between 2020 and October 2025, Reuters reports on the basis of official Turkish data.
By contrast, the Northern Ring Railway project should allow for 33 million passengers annually and 30 million tonnes of freight. This should also make Türkiye a more attractive option on the Middle Corridor as well, Ankara hopes.
Fast freight across many bridges and tunnels
INRAIL was valued at 8.1 billion dollars in 2025. It features 22 kilometres of bridges and viaducts and around 60 kilometres of tunnels. The maximum speed for freight trains is planned to be 120 kilometres per hour.
Preliminary funding deals were reached with the World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, OPEC Fund for International Development and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Turkish transport minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said.
Türkiye hopes to complete tenders this year and start construction soon.