Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has opened a new 500-kilometre high-speed railway between Ankara and Istanbul.
Officials made an inaugural trip on the  Eskisehir-Istanbul section of the line last week.
The TRY 8.6 billion (€3 billion) line will reduce the journey time between the two cities from six to three hours and 15 minutes, and opens up opportunities to connect to high-speed networks across Europe.
The opening of the line was put back after one of the high-speed trainsets struck a grinder during routine testing earlier this month.
TCDD will initially operate six daily round trips along the route.
