User:Central Data Bank/Optima Express
 | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Service type | Inter-city rail |
| Status | Operating |
| Locale | Northeast Turkey to south Austria, via Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia |
| First service | 1989 |
| Current operator(s) | Optima Tours GmbH |
| Route | |
| Termini | Edirne station, Edirne Hauptbahnhof, Villach |
| Stops | 2 |
| Distance travelled | 1,405 km (873 mi) |
| Average journey time | 30 hours, 59 minutes (westbound) 32 hours, 16 minutes (eastbound) |
| Service frequency | See timetable |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) |
The Optima Express is a seasonal international motorail train traveling 1,405 km (873 mi) from Edirne, Turkey to Villach, Austria. Although there are many other motorail train services in Austria, the Optima Express is the only motorail train service in Turkey. The train operates once every 4 to 7 days from April to November, each year.[1]
Passengers travel in private or semi-private rooms in Couchette cars, while their vehicles are transported in enclosed automobile-carrying freight cars, known as autoracks. The Optima Express also consists of a dining car for passengers.
The train service first begun in 1989 and is used mostly by Turkish residents in Austria for holiday travel to Turkey.[2]
Overview
[edit]The Optima Express is operated by Optima Tours, using trackage of six national railway carriers; the Turkish State Railways, National Railway Infrastructure Company (Bulgaria), Serbian Railways, Croatian Railways and the Slovenian Railways. The train only makes two stops for boarding/deboarding; at Edirne and Villach. Apart from its two termini, the train makes four stops for customs control when crossing a national border, outside of the Shengen Area. These stops are: Kapıkule, Turkey; Kalotina, Bulgaria; Tovarnik, Croatia and Dobova, Slovenia.
The train is comprised of second-class couchette cars, with each car consisting of ten rooms, along with a dining car. Tickets are sold via number of
Edirne Terminal
[edit]Edirne Terminal is located about 3 km (1.9 mi) southeast of Edirne's city center, on İnci Street, just off the D.100 state highway.
References
[edit]- ^ "Timetable 2017". optimatours.de. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
- ^ "The motorail train connecting Europe to Turkey". railturkey.org (in Turkish). 20 February 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2017.