The ground-breaking ceremony for a new fast line between Konya and Karaman was held on 12 March 2014 in Karaman with the participation of H.E. Mr Lütfi Elvan, the Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communications of the Republic of Turkey and Mr Süleyman Karaman, Director General of TCDD.

Declaring that the new line will also contribute to the transport of industrial commodities to Mersin Port through Adana, H.E. Mr Elvan, Minister of Transport, underlined that the new line will also increase passenger mobility to and from the region with railways.
Mr Süleyman Karaman, Director General of TCDD, stated that the existing line between the two cities, with a travel time of around one hour 20 minutes, will be kept and rehabilitated after the completion of the new line.

The new Konya-Karaman Fast Line is the first phase of the Konya-Adana Fast Line, along the South axis. Planned to be completed in 16 months, the Konya-Karaman line is going to be integrated with the Konya-Ankara HSL and thus with the Ankara-İstanbul HSL and will be used for both freight and passenger transport at a line speed of 200 km/h. Upon completion, the historical city of Karaman, which dates back to circa 8000 B.C., will be connected to Konya with a travel time of around 40 minutes, to Ankara with a travel time of two hours 10 minutes, to Eskişehir with a travel time of two hours 50 minutes and to Istanbul with a travel time of four hours.

(Source: TCDD)