The
famous 'Toros Express', named after the Taurus mountains
through which it passes, runs 3 times a week
from Istanbul (Haydarpaşa
station on the Asian side) to Gaziantep in southern Turkey. Once
a week on Sundays, it conveys a direct sleeping-car from Istanbul to
Aleppo in Syria. Costing just 69 YTL (£29 or $52)
one-way for a journey of 1,390 km (868 miles), this direct sleeping-car is a safe,
comfortable and inexpensive way to reach Syria, a great
experience passing
through some superb scenery on the way. The
Istanbul-Aleppo sleeper is an air-conditioned Syrian
Railways sleeping-car with 1- & 2-bed rooms, looked after by
friendly Syrian staff.
From Aleppo, there are several daily air-conditioned trains to Damascus.
In this
section:
Fares
What's the train like?
Travel tips
How to buy tickets
What's the journey like?
Recent
reports A bit of history.
Istanbul ►
Konya ► Aleppo
|
|
Aleppo ► Konya ►
Istanbul:
|
|
Toros Express -
direct sleeping-car |
Toros Express -
direct sleeping-car |
|
Istanbul (Haydarpaşa) |
depart |
08:55 |
Sundays |
Damascus |
depart |
See
info below |
|
Konya |
depart |
22:25 |
Sundays |
Aleppo (Halab) |
depart |
11:05 |
Tuesdays |
|
Adana |
depart |
05:05 |
Mondays |
Meydan Ekbez (Syria) |
depart |
15:30 |
Tuesdays |
|
Fevsipaşa |
arrive |
08:30 |
Mondays |
Islahiye (Turkey) |
depart |
17:14 |
Tuesdays |
|
Islahiye
(Turkey) |
depart |
09:43 |
Mondays |
Fevsipaşa |
depart |
17:39 |
Tuesdays |
|
Meydan
Ekbez (Syria) |
depart |
11:50 |
Mondays |
Adana |
arrive |
20:44 |
Tuesdays |
|
Aleppo (Halab) |
arrive |
14:17 |
Mondays |
Konya |
arrive |
04:15 |
Wednesdays |
|
Damascus
|
arrive |
See
info below |
Istanbul (Haydarpaşa) |
arrive |
17:55 |
Wednesdays |
Note:
This train is officially shown in the timetables as running
Istanbul-Damascus, but in practice it only ever runs
Istanbul-Aleppo. Passengers for Damascus must change
trains at Aleppo, see below for
Aleppo-Damascus trains. There
are additional daily trains between Istanbul & Konya and Ankara &
Adana if you want to stop off in Turkey, see the train travel in Turkey
page for train times and fares.
Due to engineering work, the Istanbul-Aleppo sleeper did not run
February-May 2007, but it definitely started running
again in June.
Days of running: The days shown above are
correct. For many years, this train left Istanbul on Thursdays, but in December 2006 this
was changed to Sundays. This is now correctly shown on the
Turkish Railways website on both Turkish and English language versions,
though the English version of the Syrian Railways website
still (at time of writing) incorrectly shows Thursdays. If you
have any more info, please
email me.
Alternative daily
train+bus option from Istanbul to Syria
|
|
Per
person, by sleeping-car:
|
... in a
single-berth room... |
...sharing a 2-berth
room... |
|
Istanbul to Aleppo: |
101
TL (£40 or $80) |
75
TL (£30 or $60) |
|
Konya to Aleppo: |
£25 or $42 |
£21 or $37 |
|
Aleppo to
Istanbul: |
5,000
Syrian pounds (£50, $100) |
3,450 Syrian
pounds (£35, $68) |
How to buy tickets
The direct
sleeping-car from Istanbul to Aleppo has eleven comfortable,
carpeted, air-conditioned 1- & 2-berth compartments with
beds, clean bedding and washbasin. Built in Germany in
the 1980s, the sleeper is looked after
by two Syrian sleeper attendants who can provide hot sweet
cups of tea when required for 1 Turkish lira. A complimentary bottle of
mineral water is supplied. During the day, you
can fold the beds away and without too much effort fold out
a 3-seat sofa. Although you may just prefer to lounge
on the bottom bunk..! Also see the
What's the journey like
section and a
3D virtual tour of a compartment in the Istanbul-Aleppo
sleeper produced by traveller Willy Kaemena.
-
Make
sure you bring your own supply of food and water (and
some beer or a bottle of wine..!) as there is no
restaurant car and no food available on board.
-
Bring your own toilet paper as
this may not be supplied, or may run out. There is one squat toilet
and one reasonably clean western toilet at the end of the corridor.
Also bring soap and a towel.
-
Eastbound, expect an arrival in
Aleppo between 18:00 and 19:30, whatever the timetable says.
-
Westbound, expect an arrival in
Istanbul Haydarpaşa a few hours late. DO NOT book
onward trains from Istanbul the same evening, including the
22:00 departure from Sirkeci station to
Sofia/Belgrade/Bucharest/Budapest, as this connection cannot
be guaranteed. Always allow for one night to be spent
in Istanbul.
How to buy tickets:
eastbound from Istanbul to Aleppo...
You can buy a ticket from Istanbul to Aleppo or Damascus at the International ticket
window at Haydarpaşa station in Istanbul, where staff speak
English. Tickets can be paid for in Turkish lira,
euros or US
dollars, but credit cards are not accepted. Some travellers
manage to book a ticket for the
Istanbul-Aleppo sleeping-car even on the day or travel.
However, the sleeper often leaves with only a berth or two
left available and often leaves fully-booked, so to be sure of a place
it's best to book in advance before you get to Istanbul.
You can do this by email through one of
these two travel agencies in Istanbul, for a relatively
small fee:
-
Tur-ISTA Tourism Travel Agency, Divan Yolu
Caddesi No. 16/B, 34410 Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Turkey.
Telephone +90 (212) 527 7085 or 513 7119. Fax +90
(212) 519
3792. E-mail
erdemir@tur-ista.com. Recommended by
several seat61 correspondents, and I can personally
recommend their service as I've used them myself.
Please mention seat61.com when booking. Tur-ISTA
charge 80 euros for travel in a single-berth compartment or
65 euros per person for travel in a 2-berth compartment
inclusive of taxes and booking fees. They will need
passenger names and scanned copies of your passports.
-
Viking Turizm,
Mete Caddesi No. 24,
Taksim, Istanbul, Turkey. Telephone +90 (212) 334
2600. Fax +90 (212) 334 2660. E-mail
info@vikingturizm.com.tr. Please mention
seat61.com when booking.
How to buy tickets: westbound from Aleppo to Istanbul...
The westbound journey from Syria
to Istanbul must be booked at the international ticket
window at the
station in Aleppo. This is marked in English, and is
the first window you come to in the row of windows to the
right of the main hall when entering from the street.
Remember to bring your passport when buying tickets. If you book your return journey to Istanbul on the day you
arrive in Aleppo or perhaps the day after, you are unlikely
to have any problem securing a berth, although it's reported
that tickets are only sold one week before departure.
For some reason, westbound berths are easier to get than
eastbound ones, and berths often
remain available even on the day of departure, although it's
not unknown for the sleeper to leave fully-booked so reserve
a few days in advance if you can. The international ticket
window opens from about 8am to 11am, and you must pay in Syrian
pounds.
Your journey starts on the ferry across the Bosphorus,
through wisps of early morning mist, from the European side to Haydarpaşa
station on the Asian side. The ferries sail from the
Karaköy ferry terminal on the
Galata side of the Galata Bridge every
10-20 minutes, the crossing takes 20 minutes, and the fare
is 1 YTL. Enjoy the wonderful views of the Istanbul
skyline, with the Haghia Sofia, Blue Mosque and Topkapi
Palace reflecting the morning light...
At Haydarpaşa station, you'll find the blue and white Syrian
sleeping-car to Aleppo attached to the back of a long line
of dark blue Turkish coaches. If you haven't yet
stocked up with supplies for your journey, there are snack
kiosks at the station, so now is your
chance - there's no food on board. Pictured above
right: Your home-from-home, a private 2-bed sleeper
compartment in the Istanbul-Aleppo sleeping-car.
Soon
after leaving Haydarpaşa and the suburbs of Istanbul, you'll
see the blue waters of the Sea of Marmara sparkling on the right with
tankers and freighters lying at anchor just off shore. A few hours
from Istanbul, and the train follows a muddy river through
rocky mountains, passing through steep valleys with river
and road far below. The train reaches an arid plateau,
and passes through Afyon, reaching Konya late at night.
Adana is reached next morning
(pictured, left), followed a few hours later by a dramatic
descent through the Taurus mountains to Fevsipaşa station.
Here, the sleeping-car to Aleppo is uncoupled from the rest
of the train, which waits patiently to continue to
Gaziantep. The Syrian sleeping-car is (usually) shunted onto two
Turkish seats cars and a long line of goods wagons, then
it leaves Fevsipaşa and completes
the descent out of the mountains onto the plain hundreds of
feet below (see the pictures below). It soon reaches the Turkish side of the
frontier at Islahiye, where you need
to
get off the train to have your passports checked and stamped
in the police office at the side of the station building.
After what seems a long wait, the train finally moves off
across the plain, soon passing through the heavily-patrolled
barbed-wire fence marking the actual frontier between Turkey
and Syria. A little while longer, and it arrives at
the Syrian border station of Meydan Ekbez. Here, passports
are collected and taken away for checking. You can
stretch you legs outside the sleeper while the Turkish
locomotive and coaches are removed, and a Syrian locomotive
and one Syrian Railways seats car attached. After a long wait, the
passports are returned. The Syrian border police are
friendly, and the formalities are not a problem.
Finally
leaving Meydan Ekbez, the train starts climbing out of the
plain into the Syrian hills, arid and rocky hillsides broken by
large groves of olive trees. Stopping at several tiny
wayside stations and passing many many olive groves, the
Istanbul-Aleppo sleeping-car finally arrives at Aleppo
station somewhere between 18:00-19:30. Hopefully you'll find a room available at
the excellent and historic
Barons Hotel, 15 minutes walk or a short taxi ride from
the station...
Pictured, left: The 'Toros
Express' descends from Fevsipaşa into the plain below,
heading for the Syrian border. The view is amazing...
Rachel Davis travelled from Istanbul to Aleppo on
the Toros Express in January 2008: "We
booked our tickets with ease through Tur-ISTA Tourism
Travel Agency and picked them up when we arrived in
Istanbul. The train left on time, it does indeed
travel on a Sunday morning at 8.55am. The sleeper
carriage was fully booked, everyone was very friendly,
there was a good mix of people despite it being winter
and the Syrians on the train were super friendly, they
gave us food, tea and Arabic lessons. We took lots of
food with us which I would definitely recommend as
there was little opportunity of getting any though the
journey. The cabin was comfortable, very warm and had
a little sink with hot water. I have travelled in
similar sleeper cabins in Egypt and this wasn't a
clean and smart but it was much more fun. The train
seemed to change engines frequently and at some point
early evening it struck a truck on a level crossing
which delayed us for a few hours (no-one was hurt, to
be honest we only felt a sharp jolt but it did require
another engine). After we got our passports
stamped out of Turkey, some of the guys were invited
to ride in the engine for a few kilometres. We
didn't arrive in Aleppo til after 6pm the next day,
the border crossing was very straightforward. We
didn't need to leave the train. It was an amazing
journey, the best train I have travelled on, great
fun.
Simon Crerar travelled from Istanbul to Aleppo on
the Toros Express in October 2007: "Booked
as you describe via Tur-ISTA Tourism Travel Agency.
Paid a total of £48, which I believe was around 38
quid for ticket plus £10 booking fee. Service
departed on time, one Syrian sleeper carriage tacked
on to the regular Turkish sleeper. The Syrian
sleeping-car was pretty full, and included a Canadian
family of four on a round-the-world trip, an English
couple residing in Germany, a Swiss father and son, a
Jordanian on his way home, a reclusive German couple
who only appeared at the border and a Syrian gentleman
and his wife, who never appeared, even at the border.
We had some issues in the night (though I slept for
eight hours so missed them) and consequently didn't
leave Islahiye until after 13:00. Border was easily
negotiated but more engine problems meant we didn't
arrive in Aleppo until just before 21:00, a full 36
hours after departure. All good though. We had a
couple of Syrian railway gents looking after us, with
an extra chap making tea and looking for minimal
baksheesh.
Willem Masman travelled from Istanbul to Aleppo and
back in August 2007:
"We bought tickets in advance via the Tur-ISTA travel
agency you recommend on your website. This
worked perfectly, everything was arranged by email, we
paid by credit card in advance. The travel
agency is in the old centre of Istanbul and the people
working there are friendly and helpful. We paid
20 euro for the reservation service for two tickets in
a two bed sleeper. The sleeper was fully booked
(several western travellers had used seat 61!).
The journey was very pleasant, we were provided with
one bottle of water by the train staff. Tea,
coffee and hot water were available. The air
conditioning works only for some parts of the trip,
but it was OK. Due to extensive border controls
and waiting for a train to pass, we arrived in Aleppo
at nine in the evening. We went to the train
station the next day to buy our tickets for our way
back. Apparently there is only one guy at the
train station that is allowed to sell tickets for this
train, and he only works in the morning from 8 am to
11am. At first they told us that is only
possible to buy a ticket one week in advance, but they
eventually gave us a reservation, or rather, they
wrote down our names on a list and gave us a piece of
paper with the information (unofficial). We came
back to Aleppo one day before the train left and went
to the ticket office again. At first they told
us that the train was full, and that our reservation
did not count. After some talking they allowed our
reservation and put our names on the more definitive
list. they could not sell us tickets until the next
morning when the "special guy" would be in again. We
heard from some other people that they were told that
reservations are not possible and that they should
come back at the day the train leaves. The
morning the train leaves, the booking clerk makes his
last and final list, only then were we were able to
buy tickets."
Peter Lemmey in May 2005
reports: "The Syrian sleeping cars (we had
different ones out and back) were well maintained and
very clean: hot water and air conditioning all
functioning properly. The car was about half full on
each leg, and the attendant allowed us use of the
empty adjacent compartment via the internal connecting
door. We bought tickets for the southbound
journey via Tur-Ista travel agency (erdemir@tur-ista.com)
in Istanbul. Arrival in Aleppo (where the
sleeper ended its journey, it did not go on to
Damascus) was 4 hours late, at around 18:00."
Another traveller in May 2005 reports that on his trip
the sleeper was full. He advises to take plenty
of food with you as there's no restaurant, although
tea can be obtained from the sleeper attendants.
Also take some spare loo roll for when the Syrian
supplies run out..!
A
traveller in September 2004 reports he had no trouble
getting a sleeping-berth on this train from Istanbul
to Aleppo booking the day before departure. The sleeper was comfortable,
and almost full of friendly Syrians returning home.
Another traveller
in October 2004 reports no problems getting a
private sleeper from Istanbul to Aleppo, booking the
day before departure. Only two of the other
compartments were taken on that departure. The
Syrian sleeper attendant was very friendly, although a
torch would have been useful as the coach only had the
basic emergency lighting operational on that run(!).
Arrival in Aleppo was a few hours late, at 19:45.
If you use this train and have any
further feedback, please
e-mail me..!
A brief history of the Taurus Express...
Agatha
Christie's novel, 'Murder on the Orient Express',
doesn't start in Istanbul, or on the Orient Express.
It opens on the platform at Aleppo, next to the two
blue-and-gold Wagons-Lits sleeping cars of the Taurus Express
bound for Istanbul. The Taurus Express was
inaugurated in February 1930 by the Compagnie Internationale des
Wagons-Lits, the same company that operated the Orient
Express and Simplon Orient Express, as a means of
extending their services beyond Istanbul to
the East. It ran several times a week from
Istanbul Haydarpaşa station
to Aleppo and Baghdad, with a weekly through sleeper to
Tripoli in Lebanon. After the second world war,
the Wagons-Lits company gradually withdrew and
operation of the Taurus Express was taken over by the
Turkish, Syrian and Iraqi state railways. Up
until the late 1980s, a twice-weekly Istanbul-Baghdad
service was maintained, with weekly through seating
cars from Istanbul to Aleppo. For political
reasons, the through service to Baghdad was suspended
and the main train curtailed at Gaziantep, but the
weekly through seats cars Istanbul-Aleppo were
maintained. In 2001, the Aleppo portion of the
Toros Express was speeded-up and given a proper
Syrian sleeping-car instead of the two very basic
Turkish seats cars.
You can once again travel in the security and comfort
of a proper sleeper from Istanbul to Syria, and it's a
great way to go...
If you
need to travel from Istanbul to Syria and the
weekly schedule of the Toros Express doesn't suit you
(or in the unlikely event that the Toros Express
sleeper is full), there are several alternatives:
-
Option 1, take the daily Içanadolou
Mavi Tren from Istanbul (Haydarpasa) to Adana.
After spending the night in Adana, you can either travel by taxi from Adana to Aleppo,
or by bus from Adana to Antakya (15 Turkish lira) and
another bus from Antakya to Aleppo (11 Turkish lira). One seat61 correspondent
who took a
taxi from Adana to Aleppo reports that it took
5-6 hours including 2 hours crossing the border and
cost $90 for all three passengers.
Option 2, if the Syrian sleeper is full, book a berth in the three-times-a-week
Turkish sleeping-car from Istanbul to Gaziantep, then take a
bus to Aleppo from there, a 2-hour journey. Once on
the train, you may find it's possible to negotiate a sitting
place in the Syrian sleeping-car next morning for the
daytime run from Fevsipaşa to Aleppo.
If you have any
feedback about these routes, please
email me.
Alternative train+bus
options from Syria to Istanbul...
From Syria
to Istanbul, there's a
daily direct bus from Aleppo's Karnak bus station to Antakya and Adana, leaving at 05:00.
Or there are minibuses to Antakya with bus connection
to Adana, leaving from the small bus station down a
side street next to the Ramsis Hotel (opposite the
Baron's Hotel) for 800 Syrian pounds. The
minibuses leave a 05:00 and 14:00, journey about 6
hours 30 mins to Adana. The 05:00 departure will
get you to Adana in time for the Içanadolou
Mavi Tren to Istanbul, leaving Adana at 14:10
arriving Istanbul 09:09 next day.
If you need to
travel between Aleppo and Damascus, take the train.
It's fast, very comfortable, and unbelievably cheap. There
are several daytime air-conditioned trains between Aleppo
and Damascus, also an overnight train with sleeping-car.
Aleppo ► Damascus
|
|
Damascus ► Aleppo
|
|
Train
number: |
70 |
10 |
12 |
16 |
30 |
Train
number: |
9 |
11 |
73 |
13 |
1,2,S |
|
classes: |
1,2 |
1,2 |
1,2 |
1,2 |
1,2,S |
classes: |
1,2 |
1,2 |
1,2 |
1,2 |
1,2,S |
|
Aleppo |
depart |
04:00 |
05:40 |
10:05 |
15:32 |
00:00 |
Damascus |
depart |
06:50 |
15:32 |
17:45 |
20:20 |
00:20 |
|
Hama |
arr/dep |
05:15 |
07:40 |
11:30 |
17:30 |
02:15 |
Homs |
arrive |
09:15 |
17:40 |
19:15 |
22:20 |
03:20 |
|
Homs |
arr/dep |
06:15 |
08:40 |
12:30 |
18:30 |
03:15 |
Hama |
arrive |
10:00 |
18:40 |
20:15 |
23:05 |
04:20 |
|
Damascus |
arrive |
09:00 |
10:15 |
13:30 |
20:30 |
06:30 |
Aleppo |
arrive |
11:30 |
20:32 |
23:15 |
24:00 |
06:20 |
1 ,2 = 1st
& 2nd class with buffet car.
1, 2,
S = 1st & 2nd class seats plus
sleeper
with 1 & 2-bed compartments.
Double-check all
train times locally!
Damascus Kadem station
is 3-4km southwest of Damascus city centre, a taxi to/from
the centre costs about 100 Syrian pounds ($2) and takes 25
minutes when traffic is busy.
It's reported
that a free shuttle bus leaves the Hedjaz station one hour
before the departure of each Aleppo-bound train from
Damascus Kadem - confirm this at the Hedjaz station ticket
office.
You can check Syrian train times and fares at
www.cfssyria.org (hint: click 'Call Offers' for English,
then select 'trips' and 'national journeys' for train times)
Aleppo to
Damascus is 367 km (229 miles).
Bring your
passport when buying tickets. In Damascus, you can buy
tickets at the city centre Hedjaz station, as well as at
Kadem station.
Fares:
|
|
Aleppo-Damascus
by daytime express: |
1st
class = 240
Syrian pounds (£2.50 or $5)
2nd class = 100
Syrian pounds (£1 or $2) |
|
Aleppo-Damascus
sharing 2-bed sleeper: |
350
Syrian pounds (£4 or $7) |
New Aleppo-Damascus 100mph trains as from 2007...
Brand new 100 mph air-conditioned diesel
trains were
delivered from South Korea in late 2006 to improve
Damascus-Aleppo train services.
3-D tour of new train interior.
3-D photo of new train cafeteria. It's reported
that all daytime Aleppo-Damascus trains now use the new
trains.
 |
|
 |
|
 |
| Above:
One of the new trains...
Photo courtesy of Willy Kaemena |
|
Above:
1st class seats in the new train...
Photo courtesy of Willy Kaemena |
|
Above:
Cafe car Photo
courtesy of Willy Kaemena |
Travellers' reports:
A recent traveller on the Damascus-Aleppo overnight
sleeper says, "I was a woman in her mid-twenties and
was a little conscious of travelling on my own. The
actual service was surprisingly good. I was ushered in
and told the procedure about tickets and not to open
my door for any other knocks till the morning. The
cost one way was 290 Syrian pounds (about £3), pretty good value considering I had the whole
room to myself for no extra cost."
On daytime trains, the air-con in first class is
almost too good, the armchairs are comfortable and
reclining with loads of legroom. A girl came
round soon after departure handing out a complimentary
sweet to each passenger.
If you have any further feedback, please
e-mail me..!
